DIM (FIND ) and LIKE

[bteixeira]

I'm trying to get the first element in an array that contains a substring.  (Preferably without having to do a for loop)
DIM (FIND ) looked promising but it doesn't seem to work with the LIKE comparison.
Is there another way to do this?

[Mike King]

The DIM FIND only accepts the standard =, <>, <, >, <=, or >= comparisons.

[bteixeira]

So to the original question, is there a way to find the first element of an array that contains a substring without using a for loop?

[Mike King]

Here is a way to avoid using a FOR although it does use a bit more memory

Code Select Expand

  def fn_find(local _arrayname$, local TEXT$)
  local all$=sep+rec(cpl("IOLIST "+_arrayname$+"[ALL]"))
  return pos(sep=all$(1,pos(TEXT$=all$)),1,0)
  end def
!
  dim x$[1:3]
  x$[1]="Cute kitten"
  x$[2]="Playful Puppy"
  x$[3]="Noisy Bird"
!
  print fn_find("x$","Puppy")

The fn_find() function takes the name of the array (as a string -- not the actual array) and the text to find.  It then stuffs all elements in the array into a temporary string and scans it.

[Frank Dreßler]

Here is an abuse of the range assignment to find the first element of an array that matches the pattern$. But a loop would be more readable and more efficient I guess.

Code Select Expand


def fn_find(array${all}, pattern$)
local idx = 1
array${all} = tbl(ior(array${all} like pattern$, and(0, ++idx)), array${all}, err=*next)
if not(tcb(2)) return dim(read min(array$)) - 1
return idx
end def
!
dim arr$[*]
arr$[*] = "alpha"; arr$[*] = "beta"
arr$[*] = "gamma"; arr$[*] = "delta"
!
idx = fn_find(arr${all}, "^.am.a$")
if idx print msg(="Entry that matches ""%3"" at index %1: %2", str(idx), arr$[idx], pattern$)


[Mike King]

Frank,

Actually your post gave me another idea.  Create a dummy array of match values then return the index of the first match.

Code Select Expand

  def fn_find(local _array${all}, local TEXT$)
  local dim _match[dim(read min(_array$)):dim(read max(_array$))]
  _match{all}=_array${all} like TEXT$
  return dim(find _match{all}<>0,err=*next)
  return -1
  end def
!
  dim x$[1:3]
  x$[1]="Cute kitten"
  x$[2]="Playful Puppy"
  x$[3]="Noisy Bird"
!
  print fn_find(x${all},"Puppy")

[Mike King]

Frank,

You don't really need to track the index yourself simply use TCB(18) as in:

Code Select Expand

  def fn_find(local _array${all},pattern$)
  _array${all}=tbl(_array${all} like pattern$,_array${all},err=*next)
  if tcb(2) \
   then return dim(read min(_array$))+tcb(18) \
   else return dim(read min(_array$))-1
  end def
!
  dim arr$[*]
  arr$[*]="alpha";
  arr$[*]="beta"
  arr$[*]="gamma";
  arr$[*]="delta"
!
  idx=fn_find(arr${all},"^.am.a$")
  if idx \
   then print msg(="Entry that matches ""%3"" at index %1: %2",str(idx),arr$[idx],pattern$)