[REBOL] Re: Building an Associate List from a string
From: carl:cybercraft at: 24-Dec-2003 22:42
On 21-Oct-03, Tim Johnson wrote:
> Hello REBOLS:
> I need some advice :-)
> I've written a function that converts a delimited string into an
> associative list.
> Code and example console session is below: ;;
> > make-al: function[ {Builds an associative list from a delimited
> string}
> str[string!] {delimited string}
> /with delimiter[string! char!] {custom delimiter (TAB is
default)}
> /default _dval[any-type!] {custom default value (NONE is
default)}
> ][tmp al-block sep dval][
> sep: either with[to-string delimiter][to-string TAB]
> dval: either default[_dval][none]
> al-block: copy []
> tmp: parse/all str sep
> if not even? length? tmp[append tmp dval]
> foreach [name value] tmp[
> append al-block to-word name
> append al-block value
> ]
> al-block
> ]
> test: "age^-54^-name^-Tim Johnson^-occuptation^-coder"
> probe make-al test
> ;; = Console session > == [age "54" name "Tim Johnson" occuptation "coder"]
> ;; Now, so far it is a piece of cake, but this is where
> ;; I falter:
> I would like to employ a strategy that converts any value
> to the best guess for a rebol datatype. IOWS, "54"[string!]
> would become 54[integer!]
> It occurs to me that a brute-force method would be to process
> via a nested attempt[any[]] loop.
> Any more "elegant" ideas?
> thanks
> tim
Hi Tim,
If you could first enclose the text you want to end up as strings in
speechmarks, (maybe using parse), a simple load may be all you'd
need. ie...
>> test: {age^-54^-name^-"Tim Johnson"^-occuptation^-"coder"}
== {age^-54^-name^-"Tim Johnson"^-occuptation^-"coder"}
>> load test
== [age 54 name "Tim Johnson" occuptation "coder"
]
It all depends on how well-ordered your data is, I guess.
--
Carl Read