Is there a way to escape a comma in a comma delimited list? (ObjectScript)

Question

Question

Brian Schoen · Mar 1, 2023

#ObjectScript #InterSystems IRIS

Example: In("Connected, Connected, but issues, Not Connected")

(How) can I escape the comma in the 2nd value?

Thanks,

Brian

Product version: IRIS 2022.1

Discussion (2)2

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Iain MacDonald · Mar 2, 2023

The In() function in Ens.Util.FunctionSet is documented as searching for a value in a comma-delimited string.

There is undocumented additional functionality for custom separators.

If the items parameter has ",," (two commas) right before the last or second to last character in the string, then the following strings are used as separators.

If there is one character, then that is used as a separator:

w ##class(Ens.Util.FunctionSet).In("a","|a|f|d|c|a,b|a,b,c|,,|")
1

If there are two characters, then those are used as a prefix and suffix for values:

w ##class(Ens.Util.FunctionSet).In("a","<a><b><c><a,b,c>,,<>")
1

Please note that although there is an intention to document this in a future release at some stage, as it is not documented at the moment, it should be used with extreme caution - it may be removed from future versions without warning.

1 0

score 1 · Answer 1 · 2023-03-01T11:20:43-05:00

I don't think you can do that.
I would rather use $List() format (with the $Listbuild(), $List, and $listget operators) if one element of my "list" needs to be able to contain the element separator. Also, the $List format is a bit more efficient.