List (Stringlist function)

Construct a new Stringlist from list of strings (Stringlist class)

This shared function is a virtual constructor, or factory method, for Stringlists. List invokes the creation of a new Stringlist instance, then populates that instance with items that are, respectively, the values of the method arguments.

Syntax

%newList = [%(Stringlist):]List( itemList)

Syntax terms

%newlist	A declared or existing stringlist object.
[%(Stringlist):]	The optional class name in parentheses denotes a virtual constructor method. See "Usage notes", below, for more information about invoking a Stringlistconstructor.
itemList	A comma-delimited set of strings, each of which, from left to right, becomes an item in the resultant new Stringlist, %newlist. Under Sirius Mods 7.9 and later, the items in the list could themselves be Stringlists, in which case each item in the input Stringlist is added to the target Stringlist.

Usage notes

• List is a virtual constructor and as such can be called with no method object, with an explicit class name, or with an object variable, even if that object is null:

  %sl = List(items) %sl = %(Stringlist):List(items) %sl = %sl:List(items)

• The itemList argument must contain at least one value, which may be null. The maximum number of itemList values is 62.
• If an existing Stringlist is set to receive the result of List, any existing item(s) in that Stringlist are entirely removed before the new item(s) are added.

Examples

1. List is a constructor and as such can be called with no method object, with an explicit class name, or with an object variable, even if that object is null:

   %sl = list(itemlist) %sl = %(Stringlist):list(itemlist) %sl = %sl2:list(itemlist)

2. The following list method call creates a new stringlist instance whose three items are, respectively, the strings Moe, Larry, and Curly:

   %sl is object stringlist %sl = list('Moe', 'Larry', 'Curly')

3. The following list method call creates a new Stringlist instance whose first three items are, respectively, the strings Moe, Larry, and Curly, and then contains a copy of all the items in Stringlist %sl2:

   %sl is object stringlist %sl2 is object stringlist global %sl = list('Moe', 'Larry', 'Curly', %sl2)

4. You can use the list method in contexts where a stringlist is a method parameter. For example, the Run method of the Daemon class takes a stringlist object as an argument. A list method call can be used for such an argument, as shown below:

   %d is object daemon ... %d:run(%(stringlist):list('*LOWER', 'b', - 'printText Whatever', 'printText More', 'end')):print

   However, in this example, it is necessary above to specify the class %(Stringlist): preceding the keyword list, because strings are also valid in the first argument for Run, and list; without a qualifier it could be interpreted as a field called list.
5. In cases where a stringlist argument is expected, you can specify the List keyword without a qualifier. For example, a user method called Stuffit takes a stringlist input:

   %foo:stuffit(list('Hickory', 'Dickory', 'Doc'))

See also

Stringlist class	List of Stringlist methods	Stringlist methods syntax
Notation conventions for methods