• age Method
• append Method
• append_arrays Method
• append_arrays_filtered Method
• class Method
• clear Method
• copy_from Method
• delete Method
• dimension Method
• dump Method
• dump_csv Method
• dump_json Method
• dump_properties Method
• filter Method
• find Method
• findi Method
• first_empty Method
• for_each Method
• get_dynamic Method
• get_fields Method
• get_recycle Method
• initialize Method
• initialize_from_csv Method
• initialize_from_table Method
• initialize_properties Method
• insert Method
• isnull Method
• itemtype Method
• last_appended Method
• lower Method
• matching Method
• move Method
• property_order Method
• push Method
• reorder Method
• resize Method
• set_dynamic Method
• set_recycle Method
• setnull Method
• size Method
• sort Method
• touch Method
• typename Method
• upper Method

Array initialize_properties Method

Syntax

Arguments

formatCharacter

Defines the structure of the Data string and also defines the names of the array properties. The names of the array properties are separated by a delimiter (a non alphanumeric character or string, such as "|", "@", or "~~"). A property name may be followed by an optional type designation in the format Property_Name:Type_Designation. The default type is character. The following type designations are possible.

Format

Meaning

C

Character

N

Numeric

D

Date

L

Logical

B

Blob

F

Function

*

Supplied with the data element.

dataCharacter

A CR-LF delimited string of data values.

appendLogical

If .t., data will be appended to existing data in the array.

Description

Initialize property array subfields from a string of newline separated 'rows'.

Discussion

The <array>.initialize_properties() method loads field values from a data string into a property array. The format parameter defines the structure of the data parameter and also defines the names of the array properties. data is a CR-LF delimited string of data values. Each format element can be followed by an optional type.

For example, assume you supplied the following format string:

"Name + Age:N + Occupation"

Alpha Anywhere would create an array with three properties: name, age and occupation. It would look in the data string for values separated by the " + " separator. The Age property is Numeric.

For example, the following data string could be used with the above format string:

"Fred + 23 + Sales
Tom + 45 + Development
Joanne + 55 + President"

The optional type in the format string can also be '*' (in addition to 'C' 'N' 'D' 'L' 'B' and 'F' (for Function) ). If you use the '*' type, then it is assumed that the data that you are reading in is prefixed with the type (see example below). The array element is initialized with the type specified in the data that is being read in.

Example

The following script initializes a property array:

Data = <<%string%
Stephanie + 23 + Sales
Joanne + 45 + Development
Rita + 55 + President
%string%
dim name[3] as P
name.initialize_properties("Name + Age:N + Position",data)

This creates the following array:

The following example shows the use of the '*' parameter in the format string.

dim p[3] as P
p[1].NAME = "name"
p[1].VALUE = "fred"
p[2].NAME = "age"
p[2].VALUE = 47
p[3].NAME = "dob"
p[3].VALUE = {12/18/52}

string = p.dump_properties("name::value:*")

? string
= name::Cfred
age::N47
dob::D12/18/1952
::

dim s[3] as P
s.initialize_properties("name::value:*",string)
? s[1].VALUE
= "fred"

? s[2].VALUE
= 47

? s[3].VALUE
= {12/18/1952}

? typeof(s[3].VALUE)
= "D"