OntoDL Statement: set
Syntax
| SetStatement | := | set InternalReference = SetModeQualifier* AssignedValue | ||
| AssignedValue | := | InternalReference | ||
| | | = QualifiedConcept | |||
| | | = Text | |||
| SetModeQualifer | := | [ Mode = QualiferValueMode ] | controls the overall behavior of the set-statement (see below) | |
| | | [ Copy = QualiferValueCopy ] | copy-by-value vs. copy-by-reference | ||
| | | [ Delimiter = Name ] | for Mode=concat: insert a demiter between the concatenated strings | ||
| | | [ Valuetype = QualiferValueType ] | for Mode=concat: string concatenation vs. numeric addition | ||
| QualifierValueMode | := | overwrite | no-overwrite | concat | append | ||
| QualifierValueCopy | := | value | reference | ||
| QualifierValueType | := | numeric |
Semantics of the set-operator
| Operator | Sematics | a=string b=string |
a=object b=object |
a=empty collection | a=collection b=string |
a=collection b=object |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $= | String Concatenation: If a and b are strings, the result is a concatenation of both string. If a is a collection of strings, b will be appended to each element of the collection. Collection elements may be filtered by qualifiers (e.g. set me.Designation[Language=de] $= ($ (German) append the text "(German)" to all German designations in the collection. |
ab | error | { b } | {a1b, .. , anb} | error |
| -= | No Replacement: the set operation is only performed if a is empty. If a already carries a value or is a non-empty collection, the value of a will not be altered. | a | a | { b } | { a } | { a } |
| := | Overwrite: The value of a is overwritten by b. In case a is a collection, b will be set as the only element of the collection. Collection elements may be filtered by qualifiers (e.g. set me.Designation[Language=de] := NULL removes all German language designation from the list). |
b | b | { b } | { b } | { b } |
| += | Append to List: If a is a collection, b will be added to that collection. If a is a single object, a will be replaced by b. | error | error | { b } | { a1, .., an, b } | { a1, .., an, b } |
| = | The default behavior is Overwrite for single strings/objects and Append to List for collections | b | b | { b } | { a1, .., an, b } | { a1, .., an, b } |
