From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-03-04T12:36:23+09:00
Subject: Re: string to array and back

Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@REMOVEacm.org> writes:

> I'm working on the theoretical operation that would convert a plain string like
>   'MIjeffries' into a "record" (I use the term informally) that would look like
> 
>   { 'MI'[state], 'jeffries'[name] }
> 
> where the  { } are set brackets, not hash brackets, and [foo] means that the
> scope (field name?) is foo.
> 
> This is wanting to take place in two steps, for theoretical and atomic operation
> reasons, the first step being to convert to
> 
>   { 'MI'[0], 'jeffries'[1] }
> 
> The scopes here are actual integers. The scopes above are strings. To do this
> operation, I need to connect the original set with a "control" set that will
> look like { {0,1}[0], { 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}[1] }
> 
> So my deal is that in one and the same context, I've got some sets that look
> like string information and some that look like collections of numbers, and they
> need to inter-operate. I can probably either write my own iterator or wrap them
> in something to get what I want.

It kinda sounds like you're really dealing with symbols. Would #intern
etc help at all?

  { :state => :MI, :name => :Jeffries }

(where {} _are_ hash constructors).

Then you could define your set operations across hash slices... (if I
understand where you're going)


Dave