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Last edited by Mark Olesen

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Coding Patterns - Dictionary

Dictionary on/off flags.

In many cases, it can be advantageous to enable/disable code functionality based on a user flag. Unless pretty output is needed, a plain bool suffices. Eg,

const bool flag(dict.getOrDefault("flag", false));

If the user flag will also be used for pretty output (eg, on/off, yes/no), the Switch class is used:

const Switch flag(dict.getOrDefault<Switch>("flag", false));

Reading dictionary entries

\since 1812

const scalar value(dict.get<scalar>("value"));

const word modelType(dict.get<word>("type"));

const vector dirn(dict.get<vector>("direction"));
  • These retrieve values with input checking on type and excess tokens.

Anti-pattern: using dictionary lookup() returns a stream, which needs additional handling for primitives and does not incorporate input checking:

const scalar value(readScalar(dict.lookup("value"));

const word modelType(dict.lookup("type"));

const vector dirn(dict.lookup("direction"));

\since 1812

When reading into existing entries:

dict.readEntry("value", value);

dict.readIfPresent("value", value);

// or
if (dict.readIfPresent("value", value))
{
   ... more actions
}

Anti-pattern: using raw dictionary lookup() or doing the conditionals manually:

dict.lookup("value") >> value;

if (dict.found("value"))
{
    dict.lookup("value") >> value;

   ... more actions
}

Get dictionary values with additional checks

\since 1906

It is possible to embed range or other checks into the dictionary retrieval. The checks take the form of a unary predicate, and there are many, many ways to express them. Only dictionary input values are checked, not any default value supplied by the programmer.

const scalar relax(dict.getCheck<scalar>("relax", scalarMinMax::zero_one()));

const scalar positive(dict.getCheckOrDefault<scalar>("pos", 1, scalarMinMax::ge(SMALL));

const scalar positive(dict.getCheckOrDefault<scalar>("pos", 1, scalarRange::gt0());

const scalar positive(dict.getCheck<label>("pos", labelMinMax::ge(0));

Writing dictionary entries

\since 1606

os.writeEntry("key", value);

Anti-pattern: doing everything yourself is messy and repetitive:

os.writeKeyword("key") << value << token::END_STATEMENT << nl;

Writing sub-dictionary entries

\since 1606

os.beginBlock("entries");

os.writeEntry("key", value);
...

os.endBlock();

Anti-pattern: doing everything yourself:

os.indent();
os.write("entries") << nl;
os.indent();
os << token::BEGIN_BLOCK << nl;
os.incrIndent();

os.writeKeyword("key") << value << token::END_STATEMENT << nl;
...

os.decrIndent();
os.indent();
os << token::END_BLOCK << nl;

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