Possible to easily assign lists to variables & vice-versa?

[MichaelBluejay]

So, three lines of LC-code. At least not more than your perl-code.

Except that it doesn't solve the problem I actually asked about. Like I said, I don't want an array, I want normal variables.

By the way, you could try and read a bit more the dictionary.

(groan)

For example
put "variable1,variable2,variable3" into theList or
put "variable1","variable2","variable3" into theList or
put (variable1,variable2,variable3) into theList (variable values)
just work. No createList() needed.

The first two do not work:

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put "apples" into fruit1
put "berries" into fruit2
put "cherries" into fruit3

-- Returns the literal, "fruit1, fruit2, fruit3", not the values:
put "fruit1, fruit2, fruit3" into theList 

-- Returns the literal, "fruit1, fruit2, fruit3", not the values:
put "fruit1","fruit2","fruit3" into theList

-- Returns "apples, berries,cherries":
put (fruit1, fruit2, fruit3) into theList

So, the third example does indeed work, and obviates the need for a separate function, thank you. And let's note that the parentheses are optional.

However, I'm pretty confident that that's nowhere to be found in the Dictionary, or any of the LiveCode documentation for that matter. I'm willing to stand corrected if someone can point out otherwise.

Returning to the first problem, here's how I can do it in Perl:

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$data = 'Dave,46,sr. engineer,colorado,23';
($name, $age, $title, $city, $code) = split(',',$data);

Here's what it takes in LiveCode:

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put 'Dave,46,sr. engineer,colorado,23' into data
split data by comma
put data[1] into theName
put data[2] into age
put data[3] into title
put data[4] into city
put data[5] into theCode

For a given string of data, that's six lines of code instead of one. And every extra variable increases the code length. Since no solutions have been posted, I'll proceed to submit this as a feature request.

[FourthWorld]

Here's what it takes in LiveCode:

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put 'Dave,46,sr. engineer,colorado,23' into data
split data by comma
put data[0] into theName
put data[1] into age
put data[2] into title
put data[3] into city
put data[4] into theCode

For a given string of data, that's six lines of code instead of one.

What is happening in the code that makes having brackets as part of the variable name prohibitive?

The method suggested in this thread would yield a variable named t["theName"], which is indeed longer than "theName" but only by a few characters, and keeps all of the related data in a single structure, which can be useful for passing around, serializing, etc.

Depending on usage there may be other benefits as well. For example, if you were putting the data into fields the loop can become a little simpler with an array:

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on PopulateForm pDataA
   repeat with i =  1 to the number of flds
      put pDataA[the short name of fld i] into fld i
   end repeat
end PopulateForm

If we hand-coded individual var names we'd have a function that could only be used in one case. But here we have a function that can be used with any array of any size in any layout where we have a set of fields with corresponding names.

Depending on the full scope of your app's functionality we may be able to find other opportunities to generalize code for reuse.

And every extra variable increases the code length

An array is a single variable.

As for code length, over the course of a production work how will this difference affect the deliverable?

Since no solutions have been posted, I'll proceed to submit this as a feature request.

I like it. And as a function it may lend itself well to finding someone in the community with a similar need and C++ skills to implement it. Please post the URL when it's submitted so we can follow along. Thank in advance for submitting that.

[Klaus]

Very important hint:

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...
put 'Dave,46,sr. engineer,colorado,23' into data
split data by comma
## put data[0] into theName
put data[1] into theName
put data[2] into age
...

In LC the keys of an Array start at 1 (ONE)!

[MichaelBluejay]

What is happening in the code that makes having brackets as part of the variable name prohibitive?

For the umpteenth time, I DON'T ALWAYS WANT TO USE ARRAYS. It's my personal preference. End of story. If you want to use arrays, great, do it. I don't.

Klaus, thank you for the reminder about 1-based arrays. I edited my post so that I don't accidentally mislead others (though I can't edit the posts of those who quoted me).

[FourthWorld]

What is happening in the code that makes having brackets as part of the variable name prohibitive?

For the umpteenth time, I DON'T ALWAYS WANT TO USE ARRAYS. It's my personal preference. End of story.

Fair enough. My aim is merely to provide solutions to problems presented in these forums. There's no disputing personal preference, but maybe others with a similar need will find the examples here useful.

[jacque]

So, the third example does indeed work, and obviates the need for a separate function, thank you. And let's note that the parentheses are optional.

LC interprets anything in quotes as a string literal, which is why the first two don't return what is expected. Without quotes, LC interprets the string as a variable, at least at first.

That's why all literals should be in quotes (such as control names.) If quotes are omitted, LC will try to use the word as a variable and if one isn't found it then looks for an object with that name. You can avoid the double lookup by always quoting literals. You'll also avoid issues where a named control may be the same as a variable (which isn't usually a great idea but you can do it.)

[MichaelBluejay]

Riddle me this:

Thanks to -hh, we know that we can create a comma-separated list without having to clutter up the code with lots of "& comma &" phrases by doing:

put (var1, var2, var3, var4, var5) into theList

But let's say I need a tab-delimited list (because that's what the Data Grid uses), and that some of the variable values could contain commas. It seems then there's no easy way to do it, since I can't replace commas with tabs, or split the items by commas. Seems like I'm back to creating a custom function (e.g., createTabList(var1, var2, var3...), if I want to avoid lots of "& tab &" phrases in my code, right?

[FourthWorld]

The format function can help with that.

[[-hh]]

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put (var1, var2, var3, var4, var5) into theList
replace comma&space with tab in theList

Note. In your list each item begins with a space!

[dunbarx]

Michael.

You are doing great.

LC is flexible in its syntax, more so, as I said, than I would oftentimes like. So just to nitPick:

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put (var1, var2, var3, var4, var5) into theList

really should be:

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put "var1, var2, var3, var4, var5" into theList

You will soon see that these things matter, especially when trying to read the code of others. The conventions really help. These include variable naming and other things.

Like "nitPick". See?

Craig

[Klaus]

Hi Craig,

nope, the first creates a list from the CONTENT of the five variables!
The second will create one just the string -> var1, var2, var3, var4, var5

Here a little test, make your own conclusions

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on mouseUp
   put "eins" into var1
   put "zwei" into var2
   put "drei" into var3
   put (var1, var2, var3) into theList
   put theList
   ## -> eins,zwei,drei
end mouseUp

Please note that LC even takes care of the SPACES inside the PUT command!


Best

Klaus

[MichaelBluejay]

It might be a good idea to test suggested answers before posting them.

Note. In your list each item begins with a space!

No, it doesn't. Try it.

You will soon see that these things matter...

Indeed, inasmuch as the code you offered doesn't work and the code you criticized does.

FourthWorld, I looked up the format function, but I don't see how it's relevant.

[FourthWorld]

FourthWorld, I looked up the format function, but I don't see how it's relevant.

With concatenation:

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   put "Dave" &tab& "46" &tab& "sr. engineer" &tab& "colorado" &tab& "23" into tVar

With the format function:

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   put format("Dave\t46\tsr. engineer\tcolorado\t23") into tVar

[MichaelBluejay]

I still don't see how that's relevant. As I posted, I want to created a list of a bunch of tab-delimited variables, not put a string containing tabs into a variable.

[jacque]

But let's say I need a tab-delimited list (because that's what the Data Grid uses), and that some of the variable values could contain commas. It seems then there's no easy way to do it, since I can't replace commas with tabs, or split the items by commas. Seems like I'm back to creating a custom function (e.g., createTabList(var1, var2, var3...), if I want to avoid lots of "& tab &" phrases in my code, right?

If a variable contains commas then you need to change the list to use a different delimiter. You can set a custom delimiter to anything that you know isn't in the set of items you want to parse. I'll use a pipe here but it can be anything, including multiple characters; you could use "zzzzz" as a delimiter if you wanted to.

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put (var1|var2|var3|var4|var5) into theList
set the itemDelimiter to "|"
repeat for each item i in theList
 put i & tab after tNewList
end repeat