Mike Bonner wrote:
Say you have an unspecified number of "things" you want to put into their
own variables (yeah, I know, use an array, but for example purposes arrays
don't exist)
So, if you want to put each line of a random number of lines into its very
own variable, this is where the example I cited comes in.
*put 1 into tcounter*
*repeat for each line theLine in theData*
*do "put theData into myVar" & i*
*add 1 to tcounter*
*end repeat*
*
*
This will put the first line into myVar1 line 2 into myVar2 etc on down the
line.
I think this may have been covered before but catching up on this thread
I couldn't find the post:
Why not use an array?
When you need a set of variables whose quantity of elements and/or
element names can't be known in advance, arrays are a perfect fit:
put 1 into tCounter
repeat for each line tLine in tData
put tData into myVar[tCounter]
add 1 to tCounter
end repeat
Using "do" and "value" can be very powerful for many tasks, but relative
to arrays they carry a cost to both performance and ease of debugging.
With most scripts, tokens can be compiled in advance of execution. But
with "do", "value", "send", and "dispatch", those expressions need to be
evaluated at runtime. Used once the difference can be minor, since it's
a fraction of a millisecond. But in a lengthy repeat loop it can add up
and potentially become noticeable.*
The hash lookup used in arrays is so blindingly fast that, coupled with
the ease of being able to do things like get the keys of the array to
discover the number of elements created, the benefits are overwhelmingly
favorable compared to "do".
* I'll admit I'm a bit of a "microsecond weenie" (someone overly
concerned about performance), but I feel it's often worthwhile adopting
good scripting habits that favor performance because the clock cycles
saved may allow an app to add new features down the road which might
otherwise be prohibitive, like real-time update of displays.
If you're a bit of a "microsecond weenie" yourself, this outline on
benchmarking may be of interest:
<http://livecodejournal.com/tutorials/benchmarking-revtalk.html>
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv
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