STYLE: use findIndices instead of findStrings

- avoids needless creation of a regExg and comparison when the content
  is a plain string anyhow

meshLibrary/utilities/meshes/polyMeshGen/polyMeshGenFaces.C

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ License
 #include "IOobjectList.H"
 #include "faceSet.H"
 #include "demandDrivenData.H"
-#include "stringListOps.H"
+#include "ListOps.H"
 
 // * * * * * * * * * * * * Private Member Functions  * * * * * * * * * * * * //
 
@@ -268,17 +268,15 @@ Foam::labelList Foam::Module::polyMeshGenFaces::findPatches
     const word& patchName
 ) const
 {
-    wordList allPatches = patchNames();
+    const labelList ids = findIndices(patchNames(), patchName);
 
-    labelList patchIDs = findStrings(patchName, allPatches);
-
-    if (patchIDs.empty())
+    if (ids.empty())
     {
         WarningInFunction
             << "Cannot find any patch names matching " << patchName << endl;
     }
 
-    return patchIDs;
+    return ids;
 }
 
 

meshLibrary/utilities/meshes/triSurf/triSurfFacets.C

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ License
 #include "pointIOField.H"
 #include "IOobjectList.H"
 #include "pointSet.H"
-#include "stringListOps.H"
+#include "ListOps.H"
 
 // * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
 
@@ -89,19 +89,17 @@ Foam::labelList Foam::Module::triSurfFacets::findPatches
     const word& patchName
 ) const
 {
-    const wordList allPatches = patchNames();
-
-    const labelList patchIDs = findStrings(patchName, allPatches);
+    const labelList ids = findIndices(patchNames(), patchName);
 
     # ifdef DEBUGtriSurf
-    if (patchIDs.empty())
+    if (ids.empty())
     {
         WarningInFunction
             << "Cannot find any patch names matching " << patchName << endl;
     }
     # endif
 
-    return patchIDs;
+    return ids;
 }
 
 

[Philippose Rajan]

Hello Mark,
We have a problem here with cfMesh... This change that you made breaks the capability of cfMesh to find patches using regular expressions.

That was the reason why I had used stringListOps.H and findStrings in the first place rather than a plain "pick out of a list" option which is what findIndices from listOps.H does.

Could you kindly change this back to the original implementation so that regular expressions can be used again?

Thank you.

Regards,
Philippose

[Mark Olesen]

Okay, that does make some sense, but if that is really the case we should be using either a keyType, wordRe or wordRes as the parameter. If we pass through a patch name as a word, and have it automatically convert to regex somewhere via parameter matching, this is suboptimal.

[Philippose Rajan]

Hello @mark,
Yes, I think this is something that happened during a previous OpenFOAM API change... Initially, findStrings used to directly interpret the string to be searched for as a regular expression.

I was digging in deeper, and saw that there have been changes made to the stringListOps.H file too. What I just did a few minutes ago, was the following...:

Foam::labelList Foam::Module::polyMeshGenFaces::findPatches
(
    const word& patchName
) const
{
    const wordRe rePatchName(patchName, wordRe::REGEX);
    
    const labelList ids = findMatchingStrings(rePatchName, patchNames());
    
    if (ids.empty())
    {
        WarningInFunction
            << "Cannot find any patch names matching " << patchName << endl;
    }

    return ids;
}

This is now working, and I can use regular expressions for the patch names.

A similar change has to also be made in the file:

cfmesh/meshLibrary/utilities/meshes/triSurf/triSurfFacets.C

I was in the process of doing this when I saw your mail :-)

What do you think of these changes?

(Just to give you an explanation... I am doing this in real-time here, because I need OpenFOAM to work as soon as possible in order to start some simulations :-)...)

Regards,
Philippose

[Mark Olesen]

I've started to take a dig, but this is a bit horrible. I think it makes sense to change these to handle a keyType, since that is what it is. But then in places like meshOctreeCreatorCreateOctreeBoxes.C around line 190, we shouldn't be extracting patch names:

const wordList patchNames = dict.toc();

since this immediately flattens things. Instead we should have more like this:

forAllConstIters(dict, iter)
{
    if (!iter().isDict())
    {
        continue;
    }

    const keyType& pName = iter().keyword();
    const dictionary& patchDict = iter().dict();

...
}

That's fine, but does mean facetSubsetIndex() may or may not require a change.

[Mark Olesen]

I'd say, make the changes (probably revert) you need to get things working for you. Put it on a new branch, which we can merge in or discuss with @Juretic about his preferred direction for updating.

I'm heading off for holiday tomorrow, so don't be insulted if you hear nothing from me until into September.

I just added you as a developer to our cfmesh repo.

[Philippose Rajan]

Thanks for giving me developer access. Shall see what can be done. @Juretic has been very quiet on the cfMesh development front, and I have not seen any changes to the original cfMesh code on sourceforge either.

I assume "keyType" is a new data type in OpenFOAM which was added fairly recently? Had not come across this type till I started digging into 1806 earlier today. Need to go a little deeper to see what this data type is all about.

Wish you a wonderful, enjoyable and more importantly a relaxing holiday ahead :-)!

Regards,
Philippose

[Mark Olesen]

Actually keyType got added with dictionary regex about 2008 (from Mattijs).