A wish regarding assignment of arrays

[c.haslam]

Please consider:

; These are accepted
Local $vec = ['jack','suki']
For $el in $vec
    MsgBox(0,'',$el)
Next

Local $m[]
$m['cat'] = 'jack'
msgBox(0,'',VarGetType($m.cat))

; But these are not
For $el in ['jack','suki']
    MsgBox(0,'',$el)
Next

Local $m[]
$m['cat'] = ['jack']
msgBox(0,'',VarGetType($m.cat))

I am finding many instances where the expression in a For ... In ... is a vector or where a vector is assigned to a map key.

. I am now populating a map with about 200 entries. This takes 400 lines, rather than 200, and the code would be more readable if I could assign the vectors directly to map elements.

Thoughts?

Edited June 27, 2015 by c.haslam

[jchd]

No doubt that soon @trancexx will tell you more about this kind of initializers

[iamtheky]

Is this cheating and/or missing the point completely?  is the question can you reduce the number of lines with which you get everything in there?  or wanting to declare things in a for loop (of which i would like to see an example if possible)?

Local $mMap[]
$mMap['cat'] = mapappend($mMap , 'jack')
$mMap['dog'] = mapappend($mMap , 'jeff')
$mMap['pig'] = mapappend($mMap , 'john')

msgbox(0, '' , $mMap[$mMap.cat])
msgbox(0, '' , $mMap[$mMap.dog])
msgbox(0, '' , $mMap[$mMap.pig])

 

Edited June 28, 2015 by boththose

[c.haslam]

For $el in ['jack','suki']
    MsgBox(0,'',$el)
Next

avoids the need for the temporary variable $vec but it gives me an error.

When I run

Local $m[]
$m['cat'] = ['jack']
msgBox(0,'',VarGetType($m.cat))

I get:

$m['cat'] = ['jack','suki']
$m['cat'] = ^ ERROR

So I cannot assign a literal vector to a map entry.But

Local $m[]
Local $vec[] = ['jack','suki']
$m['cat'] = $vec
MsgBox(0,'', VarGetType($m.cat))

works as expected.

So I wish ...

Again, I have to use a temporary variable, $vec

My wish is not to have to use a temporary variable for the For .. expression, and for assigning a value to a map entry, where it is a literal vector (1D array) I am assigning.

 

Edited June 28, 2015 by c.haslam

[iamtheky]

what about with stringsplit?

For $el in stringsplit('jack , suki' , "," , 2)
    MsgBox(0, "split" , $el)
Next

 

Edited June 28, 2015 by boththose

[c.haslam]

Yes, your approach works. May be one day AutoIt will grant me my wish!

[c.haslam]

IMHO, there is a situation in which literal strings and numbers are accepted but not literal arrays: as an argument to a function. I can write myfunc($vec) but not myfunc([1,2,3,4]). This limitation is unfortunate for two purposes:

• for testing myfunc(), and
• in a script that sometimes calls myfunc() as in myfunc($vec) and sometimes as in myfunc([1,2,3,4])

 

Edited June 28, 2015 by c.haslam

[JohnOne]

Why don't you just add a feature request and be done if this means so much to you.