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_xsdescribe
Syntax
result = xsdescribe variable ;
Arguments
- list variable
A variable or value of any type.
Return Value
str result
- definition : A str array that contains the XML described variable.
The STATUS variable is set to $ACKNOWLEDGE
Exceptions
- %ARGUMENT: Invalid arguments. Usage: result = xsdescribe variable ;
Description
The describe functions are a means to both display and store variable data.
-
describe displays the variable to stdout
-
fdescribe displays the variable into a file
-
sdescribe displays the variable into another variable
-
xdescribe displays the variable to stdout in XML format
-
xfdescribe displays the variable into a file in XML format
-
xsdescribe displays the variable into another variable in XML format
When a variable is described, it is explicit. For example, the
assignment:
**a = 1 ;**
when described, ie; "describe a", is always explicit:
**list 'a' = { 1 } ;**
In another example, the assignment
**a.b.c = 1 ;**
when described, is also explicit:
**list a = {
list b = {
list c = { 1 }
}
} ;
**
The xdescribe function is for generating XML (or HTML). For example:
list html = {
list body = {
list h1 = "A story",
list p = { "The rain in spain" },
list a = {
attr ref="http://www.raininspain.com/",
"Press here"
}
}
} ;**
xdescribe html ;
<html>
<body>
<h1>
A story
</h1>
<p>
The rain in spain
</p>
<a ref="http://www.raininspain.com/">
Press here
</a>
</body>
</html>**
The xfdescribe() and fdescribe() functions are useful for storage and retrieval
of variables. For example:
**h = fopen ( "mydata.dat", 'w" ) ;
fdescribe ( data, h ) ;
fclose ( h ) ;
.
.
...later read back the 'data'
.
.
h = fopen ( "mydata.dat", "r" ) ;
line = fgets ( h ) ;
*line ; // Restore 'data'
fclose ( h ) ;**
The fdescribe and xfdescribe functions also work in conjunction with the parse
and xparse functions. For example, the above section of code to re-read the 'data' variable could also be accomplished by:
**parse ( "mydata.dat" ) ;**
The xparse function can be used to read an entire html page or a segment of
an html page and then display it. For example. this "Description"
section comes from a separate document that was read using the xparse()
function.
**xparse ( "describe.htm" ) ;
xdescribe ( html.body ) ;
**
Examples
list L = {
int i = 1,
float f = 2.6,
str s = "hello"
};
describe L ;
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