Expression Syntax

Schematic 3D Integrator User Guide

How to Configure Build Rules : Configuration File Section by Section : Expression Syntax

Expression Syntax

This section explains the expression syntax available in the Configuration Explorer when defining rules.

Operators

Arithmetic expressions can be built using the usual conventions:

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Operators + and - add and subtract numerical values

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Operators * and / multiply and divide numerical values

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Brackets (…) are used to group sub-expressions particularly to build nested expressions.

Boolean expressions can be built using the following conventions:

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Operators eq, ne, lt, le, gt, ge, test for equality, inequality, less than, less than or equals, greater than, greater than or equals, and apply to a pair of numerical expressions or a pair of alphanumeric expressions or a pair of Boolean expressions. (The result will be unpredictable if expressions of different type are compared.)

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Operators and and or test for Boolean "and" and Boolean "or" between two Boolean expressions.

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Operator not is used to negate the Boolean expression that follows it.

Attributes

Attributes can generally be included in rules using the of syntax, e.g. NAME of source, but the dot notation can also be used, e.g. source.NAME. The dot notation is useful for array attributes, e.g. source.BOREAR[3] < 100.

Functions

The following functions are available (minimum abbreviation shown in bold):


double Sine (double angle)	// angle in degrees
double Cosine (double angle)	// angle in degrees
double Tangent (double angle)	// angle in degrees
double Acosine (double value)	// result in degrees
double Atangent (double value)	// result in degrees
double Sqrt (double value)	// square root
double Log10 (double value)	// base 10 logarithm
double Logarithm (double value)	// natural logarithm
double Alog10 (double value)	// base 10 antilogarithm
double Alogarithm (double value)	// natural antilogarithm
double Absolute (double value)	// absolute value
integer Fix (double value)	// rounded towards zero
integer Ceiling (double value)	// rounded up
integer Round (double value)	// nearest integer
double Atant (double x, double y)	// atan of x/y (degrees)
double Minimum (double a, double b, …)	// minimum value
double Maximum (double a, double b, …)	// maximum value
integer Length (string text)	// number of characters
integer Occurs (string text, string sub)	// number of occurrences of sub in text
integer Instring (string text, string sub)	// Position of first occurrence of sub in text
string Asstring (object value)	// convert numeric or Boolean value to a string
double Asreal (object value)	// convert string value to a double
boolean Asboolean (object value)	// convert string or number value to a Boolean
string Substring (string text, integer start [, integer length])	// substring from the start position of given length (or to end of text)
string Left (string text, integer length)	// left part of text
string Right (string text, integer length)	// right part of text
string Before (string text, string sub)	// left part of text before given substring
string After (string text, string sub)	// right part of text after given substring
string Uppercase (string text)	// convert to upper case
string Lowercase (string text)	// convert to lower case
string Replace (string text, string seek, string sub)	// replace all occurrences in text of substring seek with substring sub
string Trim (string text)	// remove leading and trailing white space from text
string Format (string pattern, object arg1, …)	// substitute the values of the arguments into the pattern string
	- details of this are given below
string Lookup (string dictName, string key)	// return the value associated with the key in the given Dictionary
	(see Dictionaries section)
boolean Like (string pattern, string text)	// test if the text conforms to the wildcard pattern. Wild characters are:
	* - matches any number of characters
	? - matches any single character
boolean Between (object test, object lower, object upper)	// determine if the test object lies between the given lower and upper values.
	Arguments may be all numerical or all alphanumeric.
boolean Inlist (object test, object value1, …)	// determine if the test equals one of the given list of values.
	Arguments may be all numerical or all alphanumeric.
Integer Listposition	// the list order position of the current target element.
	in the members list of its owner.

Format Function Details

string Format (string pattern, object arg1, …)

The first argument is a pattern string into which the remaining arguments are substituted according to the format specifications included in the pattern string. This function follows the conventions defined for the .NET System.String.Format function.

The pattern string contains normal text with the argument formatting elements embedded within curly braces. For example:

Format('/{0}-{1}-{2:D3}', PREFIX of source, LETTER of source, NUMBER of source)

This example generates a name from the values of three attributes on the source object. The first two values are straightforward substitutions. The third value is substituted as an integer value with a minimum of 3 digits, padded with leading zeros if necessary, e.g. "45" -> "045".

Another example of a format specifier is {3:F2}. In this example the fourth value is substituted as a number with two decimal digits, e.g. "3456" is output as "3456.00".

For further information about format specifiers please refer to

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwhawy9k.aspx