Array Range

Archived
1

Is there any way to extract a set number of values stored in an array. For example in the the array myarray I only want the first 10 entries in the array.
Thanks

2

I don’t think there’s anything simpler than the obvious


first_ten = []
for i = 0 to 9
    first_ten.Push(my_array[i])
end for

–Mark

3

@btpoole , did you mean if there is an elegant way to do that, like array slicing in Python:

>>> a = [00,11,22,33,44]
>>> a[2:4]
[22, 33]
>>> a[3:]
[33, 44]
>>> a[:-2]
[0, 11, 22]
>>> a[::-2]
[44, 22, 0]

The answer would be “no”. Good idea for future enhancement though, to add ifArray.slice(…)

4

I just thought, writing a universal slice function won’t be hard - and here is what i sketched:


function arraySlice(arr, start=invalid, finish=invalid, step_=1):
    if step_ = 0 then print "ValueError: slice step cannot be zero" : STOP
    if start = invalid then if step_ > 0 then start = 0 else start = arr.count() - 1
    if finish = invalid then if step_ > 0 then finish = arr.count() - 1 else finish = 0
    if start < 0 then start = arr.count() + start 'negative counts backwards from the end
    if finish < 0 then finish = arr.count() + finish
    res = [ ]
    for i = start to finish step step_:
        res.push(arr[i])
    end for
    return res
end function

And here is testing it to act like the python examples above:


BrightScript Debugger> a = [00,11,22,33,44]
BrightScript Debugger> ? arraySlice(a, 2, 3)
 22
 33

BrightScript Debugger> ? arraySlice(a, 3)
 33
 44

BrightScript Debugger> ? arraySlice(a, invalid, -3)
 0
 11
 22

BrightScript Debugger> ? arraySlice(a, invalid, invalid, -2)
 44
 22
 0

Just like in Python it can slice forward - or backwards (-1 step reverses the slice) - or from the beginning to certain point - or from a position till the end - or every N-th element (when step is N>1). One difference is that it’s inclusive of the slice end, it’s easier for beginners that way (and was easier for me to write too).

5

Thanks for the input. I was hoping I was missing a part in sdk that provided a dot operator where a range could be extracted. I can live with the small code to do it, but was looking for a one liner.
Thanks again

6

“btpoole” wrote:
I can live with the small code to do it, but was looking for a one liner.
I just wrote you a little gem* of a function that does in one line what you asked for:

mySlice = arraySlice(myArray, 0, 9)  'returns the 10 first elements

Is that not good enough? It even does party tricks, like say when called with no extra params, arraySlice(arr) makes a copy of the array.

Or would you like this functionality added to roArray, presumably in optimized implementation? You and me both, brother… where do i sign? :wink:

(*) all credit goes to
a) Python’s slice notation/concept
b) optional parameters capability in BrightScript
c) the way FOR loop loops

7

EnTerr, thanks a million. I had created the script using the for/end for but will use this in its place.
Thanks again