ircII help: expressions
ircII help: expressions
This help file describes expresssions available in ${}, and the
@, IF, WHILE, and FOREACH commands.
Variable expressions are used to perform arithmetic, string and
boolean operations. Their syntax is similar to the syntax of most
computer languages, and is modelled on C syntax. A simple example
of this, is that when ${A + 2} is used, and the ASSIGNed variable
A has the value '3', the result is 5.
Brackets can be used in these expressions, so (A+2)*3 would give a
value of (3+2)*3 == 15, whereas A+2*3 would give a value of 9, because
multiplication is performed before addition.
The common arithmetic operations (+, -, *, /) are all available.
Additionally, there is a string concatenation operator (##).
This treats both sides as strings and pastes them together. Thus
if A is 3 and B is 7, "A##B" becomes "37", but "A+B" becomes 10.
You can also assign values to a variable in these expressions
using the '=' operator. Thus if you have the expression "C = A+B",
it will assign the value 10 to C. This has a number of affects.
The most common case is the @ command, where you can enter this expression
literally:
@ C = A + B
The '=' operator returns the value assigned. Thus you can extend
this to:
@ D = C = A + B
Which will assign the value 10 to both C and D. In a $ expression,
you might want to assign a value to a variable, and display it at the
same time. Thus you might do the following:
echo The value of C is now ${C = A+B}
which would set C to 10 and display "The value of C is now 10".
Comparison operations also exist. These return 1 if the comparison is
valid (true) and 0 if it is invalid (false). The comparison operations
available are:
== (equal to)
> (greater than)
>= (greater than or equal to)
< (less than)
<= (less than or equal to)
!= (not equal to)
Thus, the following expressions would result in the following results:
( recall A = 3 and B = 7 )
A == B FALSE 0
A == 3 TRUE 1
A > 3 FALSE 0
A >= 3 TRUE 1
A != 3 TRUE 1
These expressions can be combined with || (OR), && (AND) and ^^ (XOR).
So (A == 3) || (B==3) would be TRUE, and (A == 2) && (B == 7) would be
FALSE. You can also negate expressions with ! (NOT), so !(A == 3) would
be FALSE. These boolean expressions are used primarily in IF and WHILE.
A string expression is considered to be true if it is non empty. So
if E has the value "word", then E || ( A > 3) is true, because E has
a non empty value, and !E is false.
Functions can also appear in expressions. The arguments to functions
are evaluated as normal $ type expressions. Thus the following alias:
alias test echo ${ MID(3 2 $0) + 5) }
is executed with /test 123456, would give 34 (Two digits from position 3
in $0) + 5, giving 39. If the function returns another function name, that
function name can be called with another set of brackets. Thus if you have
the following set of aliases:
alias fptr
{
if ( [$0] )
{ @ function_return = func1 }
{ @ function_return = func2 }
}
alias func1 @ function_return = this is $0
alias func2 @ function_return = that is $0
alias check echo ${ fptr($0)($1) }
then /check 0 1 would print "that is 1", and /check 1 0 would print
"this is 0".
Array expressions can also be used in this way. For example:
assign A.1.1 One One was a racehorse
assign A.1.2 Two Two was one too
assign A.2.1 One One won one race
assign A.2.2 Two Two won one too
alias rhyme echo ${ A[$0][$1] }
would cause /rhyme 2 1 to print "One One won one race".
Function and array expressions can be combined to give a form
of pointer arithmetic like that seen in C. If a function
RhymeNum exists as follows:
alias RhymeNum @ function_return = [A]
and rhyme is changed to:
alias rhyme echo ${ RhymeNum()[$0][$1] }
/rhyme 2 1 still prints "One One won one race". This is because
RhymeNum returns A, and the expression then becomes A[$0][$1].
The $0 is expanded to 2, so it becomes A.2[$1], and the $1 is
expanded to 1, so it becomes A.2.1, which is then substituted as
a variable for "One One won one race". The reverse is also possible.
For example, a robot might have the following:
alias thing.0 @ function_return = laughs his silly head off
alias thing.1 @ function_return = growls menacingly
alias thing.2 @ function_return = smiles like a crocodile
alias thing.3 @ function_return = wails uncontrollably
alias something SAY WereBot ${ thing[$RANDOM(4)]() }
Will cause WereBot to say that it's laughing itself silly, growling
menacingly, smiling like a crocodile or wailing uncontrollably.
Assuming RANDOM(4) results in a value of 2, This expands to
thing.2(), which is then considered to be a function and substituted
to "smiles like a crocodile", the end result being that WereBot will
say "WereBot smiles like a crocodile".
Finally, there are occasions when you need to get back to the $
substitution level. This can be done by enclosing text to be used at
this level in [..]. For example, [A] substitutes to a literal 'A',
whereas A on its own substitutes to 3, and [$0] is needed to get
argument 0, because 0 on its own is taken to be the number 0.
Example:
alias something SAY WereBot ${ [$0][$RANDOM(4)]() }
will case /something thing to first expand [$0] to thing, giving
thing[$RANDOM(4)](), and if $RANDOM(4) returns 1, this becomes
thing.1(), which expands to "growls menacingly", and causes
WereBot to say "WereBot growls menacingly".
The following is the parse tree for expressions such as those
NU_EXPR = NU_CONJ
NU_CONJ = NU_CONJ && NU_CONJ |
NU_CONJ || NU_CONJ |
NU_CONJ ^^ NU_CONJ |
NU_ASSN
NU_ASSN = varexp = NU_ASSN |
NU_COMP
NU_COMP = NU_COMP == NU_COMP |
NU_COMP != NU_COMP |
NU_COMP > NU_COMP |
NU_COMP >= NU_COMP |
NU_COMP < NU_COMP |
NU_COMP <= NU_COMP |
NU_ADD
NU_ADD = NU_ADD + NU_ADD |
NU_ADD - NU_ADD |
NU_ADD ## NU_ADD |
NU_MULT
NU_MULT = NU_MULT * NU_MULT |
NU_MULT / NU_MULT |
NU_UNIT
NU_UNIT = token NUX_MODIF |
unaryop token |
( NU_EXPR ) |
[ expression ] NUX_MODIF
NUX_MODIF = ( expression ) NUX_MODIF |
[ expression ] NUX_MODIF
Special cases:
If a (...) or {...} construct is quoted with \(...\) or \{...\}
then variable expansion will take place on the first available
parse run. However, after parsed, the \'s are eaten. e.g.
alias bonk echo ($0) will return "($*)" regardless of
the argument to the alias. No expansion takes place. However, in
alias bonk echo \($0\)
expansion takes place as the special meaning of the () is taken
away by \. This will return "(arguments to bonk)".