controlflow.rst

Control Flow Tools

Pythonect supports standard control flow tools, but with a twist!

Using Boolean Values as if Statement

There's no if keyword in Pythonect, instead, boolean values are used to determine whether to terminate or continue the flow.

:const:`True` as Pass-through

Whenever a Python expression or function returns :const:`True` the current value in the flow is pushed to the next operation. For example:

1 -> [_ < 2] -> print

Will print :const:`1`, because the expression is evaluated to :const:`True` (i.e. 1 < 2). Another example:

"Hello, world" -> _.startswith('Hello') -> print

Will print "Hello, world" because startswith method returned :const:`True` (i.e. "Hello, world" string starts with "Hello" string).

:const:`False` as Terminator

Whenever a Python expression or function returns :const:`False` the current flow terminates and returns False. For example:

"Hello, world" -> _.startswith('ello') -> print

This will not print anything and return :const:`False`.

Using Multithreading as elif and else

Since there's no if, there's also no elif or else, instead all possible flows are evaluated at once. For example:

"Hello, world" -> [[_.startswith('Hello') -> print "1"], [[_ != 'foobar'] -> print "2" ]]

Graphically (Visual programming wise), represented as:

Both versions will print (each in its own thread, and not necessarily in that order): :const:`1` and :const:`2`.

Using Iterable Object as for Statement

There's no for keyword, instead, every Iterable object is treated as a for-loop. For example:

[1,2,3] -> print

And

(1,2,3) -> print

Both, Graphically (Visual programming wise) represented as:

Will print :const:`1`, :const:`2`, and :const:`3` (not necessarily in that order). The same applies to generator functions (i.e. yield) and Python classes that implement __iter__() method.

The only exception are strings. Pythonect does not iterate Python strings by default. To iterate a string in Pythonect, use Python's built-in iter() function as follows:

iter("abc") -> print

The code above will print the letters: a, b, and c (not necessarily in that order).

Using Dictionary as switch Statement

There's no switch keyword in Pythonect, instead, every literal dict can be used as a switch-like mechanism (without fallthrough). For example:

1 -> {1: 'One', 2: 'Two'} -> print

Will print One. While:

3 -> {1: 'One', 2: 'Two'} -> print

Will will not print and return :const:`False`