World: r3wp

if it's *not* known beforehand

That looks exactly the structure I had in mind, but how do I get 
the data into the right part of the structure?
if I have data of   3 2/1 & I know it refers to a vlan.
I will have up to about 1500 of these for each file

If there can only be two indexs into the data, you setup those indexs, 
when you scan input. Something like (pseudo code):

vlan: 3
idx1: 2
idx2: 1
data/:idx1/:idx2/vlan: vlan


If you don't have the full data structure before you start, you might 
have to check like:


if idx1 > length? data [ ... create the required blocks inside data 
...]

if idx2 > length? data/:idx1 [ ... create the required blocks inside 
data/:idx1 ...]

That would mean I read the input repeatedly (up to about 400 times) 
for each input wouldnt it?

sorry, secont part of your message answers that option

:-)

You can also do it without using PARSE, if that's too much to start 
with. Read the input as lines with READ/LINES
A line could then be:

line: "vlan 3"

And you can pick the parts with something like:

>> copy/part line find line " "
== "vlan"
>> next find line " "
== "3"


Using PARSE is the elegant way to do it, but can be a bit tricky, 
until you've used it a few times.

or use parse line " ", which will return block of "words"

In fact I do know the index structure, so your first example is exactly 
what I need.   :-)

How do I get the data back out of this structure please?  I dont 
understand all the colons in it.

The input data is the result of a lot of parsing.

If you use integers and words as your indexâÊyou don't have colon, 
like in:

data/2/35/vlan


If you have a variable with the index, you need the colon to get 
the value of the variable, else REBOL will see it as a word, like 
in:

idx1: 2
idx2: 35
data/:idx1/:idx2/vlan

If you write

data/idx1/idx2/vlan

REBOL will look for the word idx1 in data, and it's not there.

I can't get it to work. 
>> data/1/2/vlan: 3
** Script Error: Cannot use path on none! value
** Near: data/1/2/vlan: 3

Has you defined data?

Have

I dont know how to

I have tried data: []

data: [ [ [] [vlan 0] ] ]

Your data has nothing in it. To be able to write

data/1/2/vlan: 3


you need to have at least one entry in data, and inside that two 
entries and inside that the word vlan and a value.

so I need to define all possiable parts of the structure before I 
use it.

eh ... yes or


build the structure along the way as you pointed out, the second 
part of my answer was about.

from data/1/1/vlan   to data/12/48/name  that sounds a bit tricky.

Programming can be tricky.

:-)

I tried to create a data structure like this

i2: [[vlan []][disabled []][name []]]

i1: [[i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2]]
data:[[i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1]]

but when I try to use the structure I get
data/1/3/vlan: 3
** Script Error: Cannot use path on none! value
** Near: data/1/3/vlan: 3

Have I just made a typo?  or am I barking up the wrong tree?

you've just got blocks of unevaluated blocks ( all containing the 
identical block )

create a Rebol object! instead

is an object less tricky to define?

you will have fewer problems

you need to create your data structures or objects and then probe 
them to make sure you have it right.

I have done this
template: make object! [
i2: reduce [[vlan 0][disabled " "][name " "]]

i1: reduce [[i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2][i2]]

data: reduce [[i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1][i1]]
]
record: make template []

 probe record/data/13/48  returns none ol
but >> probe record/data/13/48/vlan
** Script Error: Cannot use path on none! value

do I need to do somthing to make it construct deeper levels?

Have you read this ?  http://www.rebol.com/docs/core23/rebolcore-10.html

Was looking at it, yes. but not discoverd how these deep nested levels 
work yet.

well, one way would be to create the top level object and then add 
the other objects to the first object's members

oh, nest objects inside each other.  I will try that. Thanks.

in the above, you're expecting 20 - 30 copies of i2, but you're going 
to get all of them exactly the same ....

ie. they won't be different but all will reference the same block

Now if i2 were an object, you need to instantiate 30 instances and 
append each instance to the i1 member

That was not what I inteded..  Thanks for pointing that out...  I 
am out of my depth at the moment.

well, I think you need to work with a few small examples .. as what 
you're doing is way out ...

ok, this is a reduced set...  but it does not work. I wonder if I 
have a problem with context?

PortAttributesObj: make object! [

 vlan: copy []     ;; will hold a number or perhaps a list of numbers 
 e.g. 20 or 3,5,7
	UpState: copy []  ;; none or "disabled"
	name: copy []     ;; any string
]

PortNumberObj: make object! [
	p1: make PortAttributesObj []
	p2: make PortAttributesObj []
	p3: make PortAttributesObj []
	p4: make PortAttributesObj []
;; so on up to
	p48: make PortAttributesObj []
]

ModuleNumberObj: make object! [
	m1: make ModuleNumberObj []
	m2: make ModuleNumberObj []
	m3: make ModuleNumberObj []
;; so on up to
	m13: make ModuleNumberObj []
]	

record: make ModuleNumberObj []

it is not quite wat I want either, because I now have to reference 
my data structure lil record/m1/p2/vlan   rather than the simple 
record/1/2/vlan

I did not follow exactly your intentions,
am I correct, you want to get a structure with 4 qualities?

Then why you do not add for every line you are parsing your 4 elements:
either with 
append data reduce [port disabled vlan name]
or with
append/only data reduce  [port disabled vlan name]
?

sqlab, where would I store my data so I could retrieve it in the 
right sequence please?

The input presents the data verticaly & I need to export it horizontaly.

Each line I parse will have only one of the values disabled, vlan, 
name, & a range of ports.

when I have parsed the data I know it is for a vlan & the number 
of the vlan & the port... it is only later that I will find the same 
port number associated with the name.

I understand, you are looking for a structure where you can later 
reference the qualities?

Yes. I neet to have a structure I can enumerate to export my output
symbolicaly:
input
1 3
1 fish
2 3
2 dog

output 
1 3 fish
2 3 dog

What is your primary index?

the index is in 2 parts, like 1/1 1/2 1/3 up to 13/48

I think the structure I want is fairly straight forward, but it seems 
complex to define it without doing all 1800 values manualy.