Hi. I've never come across any automatic conversion from character user interface (CHUI) to any web-based one. You might stand a chance if the screens were written in some sort of "screen generator" framework, but most I've seen are basically hand-coded, and the problem is that they work on a field-by-field basis. So they read one field, validate input, update bits of the screen and data, and then move to the next field. This does not match well with web pages that tend to work a screen at a time, so automatic conversion is impossible. Sorry about that. I'd like to be proved wrong, of course - maybe some of the systems I work on could be converted! Anyone?

The reason that there is no sort "function", is that sorting is part of the basic storage structure that the whole system is built on. Arrays, both global and local, are automatically sorted as you set them up (effectively by an insertion sort). No need for a separate program or request. Just set up the data in an array as you go along and it will be sorted when you need it. This has always been a basic idea in the language, right from the original MUMPS, so the documentation may well skip over it a bit. However, when you get used to it, it works well.

Hi. If all you need is to set global nodes on a remote instance, then you could just set it up as a remote database and namespace and use Extended Global References to access it. No need to run code on the remote system. Or have I missed something?

We still have green-screen parts of the app, so interested in the answer. And is there a way to tie the Windows command app into running cache? (I know very little about Windows.). Thanks.

Hi,

I don't want to achieve anything else, it's just that "cache being cache" there's often another way to do the same thing and it might be easier. :-) 

Mike

Hi,

I recently needed a temporary class (not just a table) to store data while it was manipulated (imported, queried, modified, etc. and eventually exported) . I eventually set up all the storage locations with PPG refs as noted above, which works, but did wonder if there was a class parameter I had missed that just indicated the extent was temporary. Or maybe an alternative to extending %Persistent?

Mike

Hi Stuart,

As others have said, it's best practice to build a new variable, rather than amending what you have (there's some fancy name for the rule, I think, or maybe just "functional programming").

Looking at the string, I assume it is HealthShare HL7 message format, so the contents are pretty limited. In which case maybe a shortcut could be used:

s out=$Replace($Replace(list,"~]",""),"~[","")

Here's another alternative:

w $ZSTRIP($ZSTRIP(list,"*","[]"),"=>P")

I admit it could go horribly wrong with multiple nesting (I don't remember all the possible formats), so needs some testing. 

Hope you're keeping well,

Mike

Hi.

Recently, well yesterday, I needed to do exactly the same , and on a class property as well! I found an answer more by accident than design:

s data=$LB(1,2,3)

s data=$LI(data,1,*-1)

zw data
data=$lb(1,2)

When I saw the other answer, I worried that this might not work when the result is only one item, but it does, as confirmed by the documentation for the $LIST function. If you supply all three parameters - list, position, end - then it always returns another list. I was pleasantly surprised!

Mike

Hi. The "clean code" people would recommend just one parameter max, and better would be none! But I think that's going a bit far, and agree that 3, or maybe 4, maximum should be aimed for to keep things easy to understand when reading, though there may be exceptions.

The array passing is a good idea to reduce the number for normal routines, but I think the ideal for classes is using objects. If you are truly embracing objects, and self-documenting code, then new classes are usually needed and what used to be parameters become the setting of properties, like this:

S table=##class(CMT.UI.Table).%New()
S table.TopLine=10,table.BottomLine=21
S table.HeaderFormat="Underline"
D table.DefineQuery("CMT.UI.PatchSite:MyList")
D table.AddColumn(3,,"BOLD")
...etc.

D table.Display()

It works well in some cases, but I have to admit that there is a tendency for the number of classes to get a bit silly if you take it to the extreme. Sometimes simple code is best.  :-)     / Mike

I think that is my preferred method as well, but it depends to some extent what you are going to do with the result, and what you want to happen if the input number is too big. This $J solution will always return all the characters input, which may be the safest thing. (Though any space characters inside the input will get converted to zeros.)

When the fail mode needs to still return the same length string, e.g. to avoid messing up some fixed length message format, it might be best to use $E(), e.g.

W $E("0000"_number,$L(a)+1,*)

I've also seen the following used, but I'm not sure I recommend it. So many interesting ways it could go wrong!

w $E(number+10000,2,999)

Hi. I was actually looking up some information about pattern matching, but came across this warning:

If a call attempts to use indirection to get or set the value of object properties, it may result in an error. Do not use calls of this kind, as they attempt to bypass property accessor methods (<PropertyName>Get and <PropertyName>Set). Instead, use the $CLASSMETHOD, $METHOD, and $PROPERTY) functions, which are designed for this purpose

This was from https://docs.intersystems.com/latest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GCOS_operators#GCOS_operators_pattern

So it looks like it may well work now, but there's no guarantee it will always work.

Surely there is a $method() call you can use to get the next item in the array?

Hi,

I won't claim this is an answer, because it's not quite the same and people may object to the structure, but here is one solution that is used quite a lot in code I look after. Basically, a subroutine is called and then tests are done and a Quit is used to drop out when a match is found. Often used for validation, something like this that returns a result in the zER variable:

V1 ; Validate ORGC
   S ORG=zORG D WC2^hZUTV I zER'="" Q
   I IPACC<9,'$D(^hIW(WAID)) S zER="No details set up for ward" Q
   D WARDON^hILO1 I LOCK S zER="Ward in use" Q

VQ2 Q

Apologies for the old-fashioned code! However, you can see each test can be quite complex and using lots of variables, but it is easy to understand as long as you expect the structure to work that way.

This is very similar to the "clean code" solution of making the whole thing into a function that returns a value:

ClassMethod Main(val1 As %String, val2 As %String)
 {
  write ..MyOutput(val1,val2)
 }

ClassMethod MyOutput(val1 As %String, val2 As %String) As %String
 {
  if val1 = 1 return "case 1"
  if val1 = 2, val2="*" return "case 2"
  return "default match"
 }

Of course there are probably as many answers as there are Cache programmers!  :-)

Yes, we have something like that, except we use the letter "q" as the prefix, and we follow it by the programmer's initials so that it becomes a "personal" set that is left alone in all namespaces, dev-test and live. We also extend this to rule to globals and things inside the application like functions, screens, tasks, etc. The in-house configuration management system we use ignores them so they are left untouched. It's a useful convention.

(We might have used "z" like you, but it was already taken for "utility/library" stuff.)

Neither - I think it best to just remove all the code and leave a stub with just a comment (usually with the change request id and reason).

That ensures the unused code is removed from all downstream libraries, so does not pop up in searches and testing, and yet keeps a record of its previous existence. I've always been against leaving unused code in source files, even if it's "commented out".

Anyone know why we ended up with this strange behaviour? Why doesn't COS store 2 and "2" in the same way in lists? The rest of the programming environment is based around them being the same - (2="2") - as everything is a string until used otherwise. It may use "an optimized binary representation", but surely that's not really an excuse. Just curious.