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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FREEMARKER-75?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=16187036#comment-16187036
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Daniel Dekany commented on FREEMARKER-75:
-----------------------------------------

{{#assign}}-like behavior is not a good default when used inside macros and 
functions... you almost always want to set a local variable.

> New built-in ?as("variableName") to store the left-hand operand to a variable.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: FREEMARKER-75
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FREEMARKER-75
>             Project: Apache Freemarker
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>          Components: engine
>    Affects Versions: 2.3.26-incubating
>            Reporter: Ondra Žižka
>
> When coding templates, one often runs into a situation like this:
> {code}
> <#if (foo.bar.baz.expensiveCall())!false >
>      ${ foo.bar.baz.expensiveCall() }
> </#if>
> {code}
> Solving it with currently available things is something like 
> {code}
> <#assign cached = (foo.bar.baz.expensiveCall())! >
> <#if cached?has_content() >
>      Hello, ${ cached }
> </#if>
> {code}
> In short, passing around the information that a value could not be obtained 
> is a bit cumbersome.
> What I suggest is a built-in that would capture a value of an expression on 
> the left to a new variable and pass it along.
> {code}
> <#if (foo.bar.baz.expensiveCall())!?as("cached")?has_content >
>      Hello, ${ cached }
> </#if>
> {code}
> The benefits is that there is need to compute the expression twice or do the 
> assignment.
> Speaking of simplifying, the expression above could also be simplified by 
> another built-in, a "reversed" {{then()}}.  (For that I will file another 
> jira.)
> {code}
> ${ "Hi, "?if( expensive()?as("cached"), "") + cached }     // For conditional 
> prefixes
> ${ expensive()?as("cached")!false + ", good bye!"?if(cached) }     // For 
> conditional suffixes
> ${ "Hi, ${expensive()?as("cached")!false}, again!"?if(cached) }     // For 
> conditional surrounding
> {code}
> The new {{?as()}} built-in could be also used for a more convenient way of 
> assigning wile printing:
> {code}
> ${"Hi ${user}"?as("greet")}.
> ${ greet }, again.
> {code}
> I hope my explanation does make sense.
> Thanks for considering. 



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