Inconsistent Behavior _ArraySearch

[YellowLab]

During the course of my program it is possible for my array to have the value "0" as the only element stored. This array is still considered an array because IsArray returns TRUE. However, when I use _ArraySearch I don't get the expected "-1" for failure - rather I get "0" and @error isn't changed. Here is a quick example of the problem code:

#Include <Array.au3>

Dim $arTest[1] = [0]
ConsoleWrite(IsArray($arTest) & @CRLF & _ArraySearch($arTest,'test')& @CRLF & @error & @CRLF); output: 1 // 0 // 0, should be 1 // -1 // 6
$arTest[0] = 1
ConsoleWrite(_ArraySearch($arTest,'test') & @CRLF & @error & @CRLF); output: -1 // 6

While in my script it is easy enough to code for "If _ArraySearch($arTest,'test') <= 0 Then" because I have control of the arguments passed and know they are good. However, this doesn't bode well for error handling with this specific case.

Is there a valid reason for this inconsistent behavior?

Bob

[Bowmore]

During the course of my program it is possible for my array to have the value "0" as the only element stored. This array is still considered an array because IsArray returns TRUE. However, when I use _ArraySearch I don't get the expected "-1" for failure - rather I get "0" and @error isn't changed. Here is a quick example of the problem code:

#Include <Array.au3>

Dim $arTest[1] = [0]
ConsoleWrite(IsArray($arTest) & @CRLF & _ArraySearch($arTest,'test')& @CRLF & @error & @CRLF); output: 1 // 0 // 0, should be 1 // -1 // 6
$arTest[0] = 1
ConsoleWrite(_ArraySearch($arTest,'test') & @CRLF & @error & @CRLF); output: -1 // 6

While in my script it is easy enough to code for "If _ArraySearch($arTest,'test') <= 0 Then" because I have control of the arguments passed and know they are good. However, this doesn't bode well for error handling with this specific case.

Is there a valid reason for this inconsistent behavior?

Bob

The behavior is due AutoIt use of the variant data type. When it does the comparison using '=' it determines the value of the array 0 to be numeric and then casts the value 'test' to a number which is also 0 so the comparison returns true. This will only happen with the value 0. If you set the _ArraySearch Case parameter to 1 it will force the use of == for the comparison which will cast both sides of the comparison to strings and will always give you the correct answer

Example:

Dim $arTest[1] = [0]
Dim $value = 'test'
$r = ($arTest[0] == $value)
ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : $r = ' & $r & @crlf & '>Error code: ' & @error & @crlf) ;### Debug Console
$r = ($arTest[0] = $value)
ConsoleWrite('@@ Debug(' & @ScriptLineNumber & ') : $r = ' & $r & @crlf & '>Error code: ' & @error & @crlf) ;### Debug Console