Re: String to multiple-item list coercion
Re: String to multiple-item list coercion
- Subject: Re: String to multiple-item list coercion
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 16:09:07 +0100
Paul Skinner wrote:
>
The oddity is that the 'result'
>
of this statement is not the actual result. The functional result of
>
this is that myPath is now <plain text> but the 'result' returned by
>
the line is actually the 'result' of the '(text of myPath) as string'
>
statement.
That's to be expected; the result is the result of the operation which
occurs on the right. The bit on the left, assuming there is one, is
responsible for assigning that result value to a variable, or variables, of
your own choosing.
Going back to abstract language debating for a moment, I'm not sure if AS's
'result' variable is a good idea or not.
1. It's another of those things in AS that's rather inconsistent: some
operations/structures return a result, others do not. It'd be much more
prudent _always_ to return a result value, or _never_ return one at all.
2. Another problem with AS's 'result' variable is that it's globally
scoped, which can introduce the most perverse and non-obvious bugs for
certain situations.
For these reasons, along with improving legibility (i.e. nowt like sticking
in a well-named variable to clarify a piece of code's purpose), I tend to
use 'result' less and less now, preferring to assign any values I intend to
use again to my own variables. The only real advantage I can think of with
'result' is that it may be very slightly faster than assigning to a user
variable, which might be of value in deeply nested loops where squeezing
every last bit of performance is an absolute requirement. But most cases...
nope.
HTH
has
--
http://www.barple.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk -- The Little Page of AppleScripts
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