Tuples

Tuples add some useful properties to the language. A tuple is a compound type composed of two or more other types. It can be returned directly from an inspector, like this:

  • Q: (now & (1 * hour)) * true
  • A: ( Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:25:43 -0400 to Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:25:43 -0400 ), True

This expression returns a compound object including a time range and an associated Boolean True/False. Note the use of the concatenation operator &, used here to create a time range.

Tuples can also be explicitly generated using the comma , keyword. Any mix of types is allowed:

  • Q: number of processors, "B or not", 8/4, character 66
  • A: 2, B or not, 2, B
  • Q: now, "is the time"
  • A: ( Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:14:55 -0400 ), is the time
  • Q: 1, number of processors < 3, "friend"
  • A: 1, True, friend

Note that if an individual inspector returns a tuple, it will always return the same types in the same order. It's not possible to have an inspector return tuples of type <integer, string> in one case and <string, integer> in another.

Tuples can also be indexed by using the item keyword (indices start at 0). For example:

  • Q: item 0 of ("foo", 3, free space of drive of system folder)
  • A: foo
  • Q: (item 1 of it; item 2 of it) of ("foo", 3, free space of drive of system folder)
  • A: 3
  • A: 18105667584

Tuples provide a way for a relevance expression to return several related properties. For example, you could generate a set of file names and corresponding file sizes for all files that meet a specific criteria with a Relevance statement like this:

  • Q: (name of it, size of it) of files whose (size of it > 100000) of folder "c:"
  • A: hiberfil.sys, 536301568
  • A: ntldr, 250032
  • A: pagefile.sys, 805306368

Tuples can be combined with plurals to create expressions of surprising complexity and power. The easiest combination is also the least useful. Forming plurals of tuples (of the same type) just creates a plural tuple:

  • Q: (1,2); (3,4)
  • A: 1, 2
  • A: 3, 4

However, attempting to form a plural of tuples of different types causes an error. As you have already seen, plurals must always be of the same type:

  • Q: (1,2);("a","b")
  • E: Incompatible types.

Interestingly, forming a tuple of plural expressions generates a set of tuples that represents the cross product of all the component plurals:

  • Q: ((1; 2), ("a"; "b"), ("*"; "$"))
  • A: 1, a, *
  • A: 1, a, $
  • A: 1, b, *
  • A: 1, b, $
  • A: 2, a, *
  • A: 2, a, $
  • A: 2, b, *
  • A: 2, b, $

Tuples of plurals can also be used to search two lists for commonality. For example, suppose you have two lists of integers, and want to know what numbers are in the intersection of the lists. You can do this by using a nested whose, and then you refer to the outer list by wrapping it in a tuple:

  • Q: (1;2;3;4) whose (exists (it, (2;4;6;8)) whose (item 0 of it is item 1 of it))
  • A: 2
  • A: 4

The downside of this method is that the second list is bound within the whose clause and must be re-created for every iteration. To maintain responsiveness, you should keep lists like this short.

Tuples of plurals can also be used to compare two sets of data:

  • Q: ((1;2;3;4),(5;6;7;8)) whose (item 1 of it = 2*item 0 of it)
  • A: 3, 6
  • A: 4, 8

You can also find out just which files are in common by serially comparing the tuples of 'new folder, old folder':

  • Q: (names of files of folder "c:\") whose (exists (it, (names of files of folder "c:\old C")) whose (item 0 of it is item 1 of it))
  • A: CONFIG.SYS
  • A: IO.SYS
  • A: MSDOS.SYS
  • A: report.txt