Most programming languages allow programmers to store and manipulate values in arrays, associative arrays, queues, and stacks. Instead, OmniMark provides a data container called a shelf: a shelf can be used to accomplish all of the tasks normally carried out by these various structures in other programming languages. Like arrays, shelves can be indexed by numeric values that reflect the position of the elements they contain or, like associative arrays, these elements can be given names (keys) and then indexed by those keys.
A shelf is a data structure that is used to store one or more values of a certain type. string shelves
can be used to store one or more string values, integer shelves to store one or more numeric values, and
switch shelves to store one or more Boolean values. You can also create shelves of user defined data types
that are instantiated using opaques or records.
A global string shelf declaration that creates a shelf of variable girth named quotations
would look like this:
global string quotations variable
A constant integer shelf declaration that creates a shelf named numbers that contains three
numeric values would look like this:
constant integer numbers initial { 1, 2, 3 }
A local integer shelf declaration that creates an integer shelf named count that can contain
three (and only three) numeric values would look like this:
local integer count size 3
If you want to create a shelf with initial values that are different from the defaults, you can do this by adding
an initial keyword to the declaration, followed by the values you want on the shelf being enclosed in
curly braces. For example:
global integer count-f size 4 initial { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
This declaration creates a global integer shelf named count that can hold four values with
initial values of 1, 2, 3, and 4. You could also create a
variable girth shelf that contains a number of initial values, as follows:
global integer count-v variable initial { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
The only difference between these two shelves (other than their names) is that while count-f is a
fixed girth shelf holding four values, count-v begins with four values and can be expanded or contracted
to hold as many as required. If you are not sure how many values you will need to store on a shelf, it's best to
declare it with a variable girth.
It is not necessary to specify size for a multi-item fixed girth global,
constant or local shelf if you provide initial values. So the following is allowed:
constant integer weekday-number initial { 0 with key "monday", 1 with key "tuesday", 2 with key "wednesday", 3 with key "thursday", 4 with key "friday", 5 with key "saturday", 6 with key "sunday" }
If variable is not specified and no size is given, but an initial part
is, the shelf has a fixed girth whose size is the number of items in the initial part.
Additionally, shelves of a particular size can be created without having to assign initial values to the shelf
items. This is accomplished by using the initial-size keyword:
global integer count-i variable initial-size 4
This shelf declaration creates an integer named count-i that starts with space for four
items and can be expanded or contracted as required.
To store the string Now is the winter of our discontent in the string shelf
quotations, you would use the following action:
set new quotations to "Now is the winter of our discontent"
You may want to know where on the shelf this value was stored. Unless you explicitly specify which item on a
shelf you want a value stored in, it will be stored in the current item. A shelf is basically an ordered list of
items ranging from 1 to number of items on the shelf. The default behavior of a shelf is that all new items are
added after last item. If you use set to store a different value on the shelf without specifying a
different item, it will simply replace the last value on the shelf.
To change this default behavior, you can use either of two shelf indexing methods. The first indexing method is
based upon the position number of a value on a shelf. For example, the following code sets a value in the third
position of the quotations shelf:
set quotations[3] to "Words, words, words."
The second indexing method is based upon names, referred to as keys, that are assigned to each value on a shelf.
To set the key of the current item on a shelf, you would use the following code:
set key of quotations to "Richard III"
To set the key of a particular item on a shelf, you would use the same code, but adding an index:
set key of quotations[3] to "Hamlet"
Using the key index of a shelf is much like using the position index, except instead of using
[...], you use {...}:
set quotations{"Hamlet"} to "To be or not to be?"
It is possible to set a key on a shelf item when it is created. This is accomplished by setting the key in the
same action in which the new item is created. For example, to create a new item on the quotations shelf
that has a value of Alas, poor Yorick. with the key Hamlet, you would use the action:
set new quotations{"Hamlet"} to "Alas, poor Yorick."
Up to this point, every time we have created a new item on a shelf, it has been added at the lastmost position
of the shelf. If you want to create a new item somewhere else on a shelf, this can be accomplished by using the
before or after keywords in the same action used to create the new item. For example, if
you want to create a new item that will exist immediately before the second item on a shelf, you would use the
following action:
set new quotations before [2] to "A horse, a horse!"
This would create a new item containing the value A horse, a horse! between the first and second items on the quotations shelf. Since the item numbers are based on shelf position, this new item would become the second item, and the item that was second would become third. If the values had assigned keys, of course, these keys would not change.
If you wanted to create a new item on a shelf just after an item that had the key "Macbeth", you would use the
action:
set new quotations after {"Macbeth"} to "A horse, a horse!"
To illustrate all of this, the following program creates a local string shelf. The first item on that
shelf is given a value and a key. Then another item is created at the default end of the shelf, and given a key.
Another is created before the second item on the shelf. And another is created after the item having the specified
key.
process local string quotations variable set new quotations{"Hamlet"} to "To be or not to be?" set new quotations{"Macbeth"} to "Is this a dagger...?" set new quotations{"Richard III"} before [2] to "A horse, a horse!" set new quotations{"Romeo"} after {"Richard III"} to "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" repeat over quotations as quotation output key of quotation || " - " || quotation || "%n" again
This program will have the following output:
Hamlet - To be or not to be? Richard III - A horse, a horse! Romeo - But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? Macbeth - Is this a dagger...?