String functions library

Library name would likely be: string

Certain string manipulation functions would likely be very useful as built-ins, particularly against statically defined strings (i.e. not references to external strings).

Most of these functions would likely be unable to accept external data because they’re not two-way; however, any that can be implemented in a two-way fashion could be allowed to be used in such a way in a given implementation.

If ever possible for a library to extend basic types, similar to haXe’s using statement, these functions could be keys representing alternate views of the data, if it’s possible to access them in that way.

split

Splits a string on a given substring or multiple substrings. If there is some sort of regex type, that should also be acceptable as a substring.

This is a list type.

Usage

split[STRING, SUBSTRING_1, ...]

split {
    data: STRING
    on: SUBSTRING
    on: [SUBSTRING_1, ...]
}

Example

static {
    split: split["a,b.c", ",", "."]
    result: [a, b, c]
}

join

Joins a list of strings into a single string with some string in between each. If you wish to have a preceding or trailing copy of the separator, place an empty string at the appropriate point.

If data is a single string, it should likely still accept it and simply not add any joiners. This should not convert any numbers into strings.

Usage

join[[STRING_1, ...], JOINER]

join {
    data: [STRING_1, ...]
    with: JOINER
}

Example

static {
    join: join[[a, b, c], -]
    result: "a-b-c"
}

doc

When provided a list, this is shorthand for a join with the joiner set as "$n", thus providing a simple way to do multi-line strings where each line represents a real line and there is no need to strip indenting.

When provided a string, it should dedent the string based on the following algorithm:

1. If the first line is all spaces (/\A\s*$/u), remove it; otherwise, keep it but do not process it.
2. If the last line is all spaces (/^\s*\z/u), keep it as an empty line.
3. Do not process any empty line (/^$/).
4. Extract the spacing at the beginning of every line (/^(?P<sp>\s*)/u), hereafter called indentation.
5. Keep the shortest sp (in terms of number of characters) as sp.
6. Remove that spacing from every line in the string (s/^\k<sp>//gu).
7. Print a warning if some line has indentation that is not the same as the selected string.

Usage

doc[STRING_1, ...]

doc {
    data: [STRING_1, ...]
}

Examples

static {
    doc: doc[
        It's raining; it's pouring.
        The old man was snoring.
        He bumped his head on the back of the bed.
        And couldn't get up in the morning.
    ]
    result:
        `It's raining; it's pouring.$n`
        `The old man was snoring.$n`
        `He bumped his head on the back of the bed.$n`
        `And couldn't get up in the morning.`
}

static {
    doc: doc(``
        A wonderful bird is the pelican,
        His bill will hold more than his belican,
        He can take in his beak
        Enough food for a week
        But I'm damned if I see how the helican!
    ``) # ~ Dixon Lanier Merritt
    result:
        `A wonderful bird is the pelican,$n`
        `His bill will hold more than his belican,$n`
        `He can take in his beak$n`
        `Enough food for a week$n`
        `But I'm damned if I see how the helican!`
}