Feature Proposal: Create mechanism for switch statements

Motivation

The IF macro is inconvenient for building if / else ladders. Additionally, there should be a convenient mechanism for evaluating an expression and testing it against multiple different values.

Description and Documentation

More complicated conditional processing.

Compare an expression against multiple values (Java / C type select statement)

%SWITCH{"expression_to_test"
    equals1="first value checked"
    result1="result if equals1 matches"
    equals2="second value checked"
    result2="result if equals2 matches"
    ...
    default="result if none match"}%

Evaluate conditional statements sequentially (if / elsif ladder)

%SWITCH{""
    if1="first if statement"
    result1="result if if1 is true"
    if2="second if statement"
    result2="result if if2 is true"
    ...
    default="result if none match"}%

Mix of the above

%SWITCH{"expression_to_test"
    if1="first if statement using $switch"
    result1="result if if1 is true"
    equals2="second value to check"
    result2="result if if2 is true"
    ...
    default="result if none match"}%

Examples

| %SWITCH{"%QUERY{"'%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%'/META:RSVP[name='%PLAYER%'].playing"}%"
    if1=" '$switch' = 'YesIf' AND '%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%'/META:RSVP[name='%PLAYER%'].GettingRideFrom != 'Nobody' "
    result1="Yes"
    equals2="YesIf"
    result2="Needs a ride"}% \
| %SWITCH{"%QUERY{"'%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%'/META:RSVP[name='%PLAYER%'].driving"}%"
    equals1="CanPickup"
    result1="$percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"tablerow_canpickup\" PLAYER=\"$percentPLAYER$percent\"}$percent"
    equals2="NeedsRide"
    result2="$percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"tablerow_needsride\" PLAYER=\"$percentPLAYER$percent\"}$percent"
    default=""}% \
|

Impact

WhatDoesItAffect:

%WHATDOESITAFFECT%

edit

Implementation

• SWITCH.pm: SWITCH.pm
• Fn_SWITCH.pm: Fn_SWITCH.pm

-- Contributors: KipLubliner - 05 Feb 2012

Discussion

Fantastic to see this finally implemented

I'd like to see QuerySearch expressions in the equalsN params, but I guess we can add that later as a query1, query2, etc. equivalent (I wonder what it should if both queryN and equalsN are supplied?)

-- PaulHarvey - 05 Feb 2012

I am not that comfortable with the n syntax. Wouldn't this be possible using guards? Expressions could be checked sequentially:

%CASE{
"'X'"
"ingroup 'Y'" then="'X' is in group 'Y'"
"ingroup 'Z'" then="'X' is in group 'Z'"
otherwise="'X' is in neither group"
}%

This is more or less in line with IF statements, and it should. Switch/case is syntactic sugar after all.

So this would be equal to:

%IF{
  "'X' ingroup 'Y'"
  then="'X' is in group 'Y'"
  else="%IF{
    "'X' ingroup 'Z'"
    then="'X' is in group 'Z'"
    else="'X' is in neither group"
  }%"
}%

-- ArthurClemens - 05 Feb 2012

Kip, +1 for tackling this one. It's been a-begging for years.

Paul, it's using the %IF parser so I can't see why you think it doesn't implement query expressions already (since %IF does).

I agree with Arthur that the syntax is a bit clumsy. We have always resisted making macros support multiple attribute values for the same named attribute, but the reason is weak; sheer laziness. There is no API on the Foswiki::Attrs class to support it, and one would have to be added. If we did this, and mandated ordered evaluation of said attributes, then I can't see why we need a new macro; %IF could be extended. For example,

%IF{
  "Field=1"
    then="One"
  elsif="Field=2"
    then="Two"
  elsif="Field=3"
    then="Three"
  else="More"
}%

Simpler than case/switch, and much more perlish.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Feb 2012

After an enlightening chat with PaulHarvey and SvenDowideit I came to the realization that the if/elsif/else ladder was at the heart of my proposal, and it probably does make sense to ... put it in the %IF macro. However, this does miss something quite nice with my switch statement: the idea that you can do a verbose calculation once, and then re-use that value in subsequent conditional checks. Here is an idea about how that could be done cleanly by introducing a new macro called LET:

%LET{a="%QUERY{ .... }%" b="%QUERY{ ... }%"
"%IF{
  "$a=1"
    then="One"
  elsif="$a=2 and $b ~ 'New York Football Giants'"
    then="Two"
  elsif="$a=3"
    then="$b"
  else="More"
}%"}%

This would also have another sorely needed use-case, assigning variables for re-use:

%LET{aaaa="%CALC{ ... }%" bbbb="%QUERY{ ... }%"
"
  ... many lines of TML that use $aaaa and $bbbb (you better pick nice long names in this scenario) ....
"}%

-- KipLubliner - 06 Feb 2012

Instead of %LET there's already a %SET being accepted but not yet implemented as proposed in SettingAndGettingVariablesUsingMacros

-- MichaelDaum - 06 Feb 2012

%SET will address the second use-case of %LET, but not the first. %LET explicitly limits the scope of the variable, so it is well suited for "quickee" temp variables to be subject to conditionals. I think that both are needed.

-- KipLubliner - 06 Feb 2012

Argh, let's keep this focused (on the switch/if-tree case) please, and discuss %LET elsewhere.

Your argument for the switch statement is a good one, I hadn't thought of the single-evaluation optimisation. I'd still prefer the if-elsif-tree in %IF if it was a case of one or t'other, though. %SWITCH is really just making a special case of the "equals" test in %IF, and could be expressed differently e.g.:

%IF{"FieldName" eq="1" then="One" elseq="2" then="Two" elseq="3" then="Three" }%

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Feb 2012

Hm, %SET is indeed for quick temp variables, not for persistent preference settings. Values of a %SET are stored while parsing TML top down.

Not sure what the first and second use case of %LET is (am I too lazy/dumb to read the above conversation correctly?).

About SWITCH being unperlish: doesn't Moderl Perl have an explicit switch-case construct?

-- MichaelDaum - 06 Feb 2012

Perl has given/when, FWIW. 5.10+

-- PaulHarvey - 07 Feb 2012

Michael: My point is that the proposed %LET macro explicitly limits the scope - the new variable names are only accessible within the default parameter. In comparison, %SET has scope for all subsequent TML following the %SET.

I will update the proposal to only contain the enhancement to %IF to allow elsif. This discussion has led me to the conclusion that my original idea about %SWITCH had too much stuff jumbled together. The %LET macro should have a separate proposal.

-- KipLubliner - 07 Feb 2012

I made a brainstorming topic with my thoughts - see OptionsForEnhanceIfStatementsAndAttrsParsing.

-- KipLubliner - 11 Feb 2012

I Parked this proposal. See new proposal at EnhanceIfStatementsAndAttrsParsing

-- KipLubliner - 17 Feb 2012

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