Comparing Arrays in DXL

Hey guys,

is there a way to compare two arrays with each other?

I'm trying this but it crashes my DOORS application:
 

int array_size(Array a){
    int size_ar = 0;
    while( (get(a, size_ar, 0)!= null ) )
        size_ar++;
    return size_ar;
}
 
bool isequal = true
                                   
for(lenText=0; lenText < array_size(pairingsText); lenText++)
{
        for(lenID=0; lenID < array_size(pairingsID); lenID++)
        {
                if (get(pairingsText, lenText, 0) != get(pairingsID, lenID, 0))
                        isequal = false
        }                             
}

Any help would be much appreciated :)

Thanks, Yannick

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
SystemAdmin - Wed Oct 19 09:05:33 EDT 2011

Did not try your code but let's start off with this nugget of wisdom from the DXL Help

This section describes a dynamically sized two-dimensional array data type. An example of its use is in the Rational DOORS ASCII output generator in the tools library. As with skip lists, you must retrieve data into variables of the same data type as they were put into the array, or program failure may occur.

...and further on "get"

To ensure that this works unambiguously in the way intended, you should use a cast prefix to the get command
 

Array a = create(10,10) 
string str 
int i 
put(a, "a string", 3, 4) 
put(a, 1000, 3, 5) 
str = (string get(a,3,4))  // cast get as string 
print str "\n"             // prints "a string" 
i = (int get(a, 3, 5))     // cast get as int 
print i                    // prints "1000"

--
Pekka Mäkinen - http://www.softqa.eu/

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
YannickC - Wed Oct 19 09:42:31 EDT 2011

Array a = create(10,10) 
string str 
int i 
put(a, "a string", 3, 4) 
put(a, 1000, 3, 5) 
str = (string get(a,3,4))  // cast get as string 
print str "\n"             // prints "a string" 
i = (int get(a, 3, 5))     // cast get as int 
print i                    // prints "1000"

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
llandale - Thu Oct 20 12:12:12 EDT 2011

I'm going to have to think about the 'getsize' function; but you will likely want a "GetSize_XCoord" and a "GetSize_YCoord" functions.

If you only care about comparing the values when YCoord = 0, it would look like this:

Size1 = GetSize_XCoord(a1)
Size2 = GetSize_XCoord(a2)
if (Size1 != Size2) IsSame = false
else
{  IsSame = true 
   for (i=0; i<Size1; i++)
   {  if ((string get(a1, i, 0)) != (string get(a2, 1, 0)))
      {  IsSame = false
         break    // stop looking
      }
   }
}

Yes, always caste the get function (string get(...)).

It appears you can indeed retrieve value 2,2 from the Array even when its never been set; a fact that disturbs me considerably. I think. But it does seem to retrieve a "null" value, so if you are disciplined in making sure all your Array cells have something in it then checking for null should work. But, it doesn't seem realistic to me to make sure all the valid cells are non-null, certainly storing strings sometimes the value will be null.

I'm thus inclined to believe you cannot realistically get the size of an unknown Array, and will need to keep track of exactly how many rows and columns it has. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong.

• Louie

I tried a little to store the number of rows and columns of the array inside the array itself, perhaps coordinates (-1, -1) but its not working.

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
Mathias Mamsch - Thu Oct 20 16:23:12 EDT 2011

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
SystemAdmin - Mon Oct 24 17:19:18 EDT 2011

This may be a problem...

while( (get(a, size_ar, 0)!= null ) )

Several years ago a coworker attended some sort of class/seminar put on by telelogic. In their notes from this, they have written never to use null in this way. Rather than saying something like "if (x == null)" you would want to say "if (null x)". I don't know the reasoning for this or if it is even a problem anymore. Perhaps the smarter folks can weigh in on this...

Anyway, you may want to try this instead
{code}
while (!null (string get(a, size_ar, 0)))

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
SystemAdmin - Mon Oct 24 17:21:57 EDT 2011

while( (get(a, size_ar, 0)!= null ) )

the end of that last post should be
 

while (!null (string get(a, size_ar, 0)))     // cast depends on array

-Adam

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
SystemAdmin - Mon Oct 24 17:22:03 EDT 2011

while( (get(a, size_ar, 0)!= null ) )

the end of that last post should be
 

while (!null (string get(a, size_ar, 0)))     // cast depends on array

-Adam

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
llandale - Mon Oct 24 17:45:06 EDT 2011

while( (get(a, size_ar, 0)!= null ) )

• Louie

Re: Comparing Arrays in DXL
SystemAdmin - Wed Oct 26 15:53:27 EDT 2011