repeat string: how ?

[Jan Decroos]

use-revolution at lists.runrev.com writes:
>
>Actually, when I originally wrote it, I was not counting on having p1, p2
>and p3 filled, but I failed to change the lines that said "put p1 into
>pStartNum" to "if p1 is not empty then put p1 into pStartNum. The function
>should have been:
>
>function InitContainer pKind,pCount,p1,p2,p3
>    if pCount<=0 then return("")
>    if pCount= "" then return "Invalid number of arguments!"
>    put 1 into tNumSteps
>    put 1 into pStartNum
>    put cr into tSeparator
>    switch pKind
>        case "n"
>            if p1 is not empty then put p1 into pStartNum
>            if p2 is not empty then put p2 into tNumSteps
>            if p3 is not empty then put p3 into tSeparator
>            break
>        case "s"
>            put p1 into tString
>            if p2 is not empty then put p2 into tSeparator
>            break
>    end switch
>    put "" into tResult
>    set the lineDel to tSeparator
>    repeat with x = pStartNum to (pStartNum+pCount) step tNumSteps
>        if pKind = "n" then put x into line x of tResult
>        if pKind = "s" then put tString into line x of tResult
>    end repeat
>    return tResult
>end InitContainer
>
>In this case, the only things necessary are pKind and pCount (for numbers)
>and pKind, pCount and p1 (for strings).

Agree, BUT
now you can't have an empty separator !
(was the original question by alrice at swcp.com  : 

"fu" x 20 => fufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufu
)

my InitContainer("s",3,"a","")  -->  "aaa"
your InitContainer("s",3,"a","") --> "a"&CR&"a"&CR&"a"&CR&"a" :
	- CR as separator in stead of empty
	- 4 lines because (see earlier: x is not the destination line number (use a
2nd variable, or better use "put ...&CR after tResult"))
	- In the repeat, there should be an 'else if' in stead of the 2nd 'if', to
avoid unnecessary tests.

I did some speed tests, and asuming your InitConatiner returns the exact
result, here are the results :
(called your function "initContainer2")

on mouseUp
  
  put the milliseconds into ms
  put initContainer("s",10000,"aaaa") into p
  put the milliseconds - ms into lRes
  
  put the milliseconds into ms
  put initContainer2("s",10000,"aaaa") into p
  put space&(the milliseconds - ms) after lRes
  
  put the milliseconds into ms
  put initContainer("n",10000) into p
  put space&(the milliseconds - ms) after lRes
  
  put the milliseconds into ms
  put initContainer2("n",10000) into p
  put space&(the milliseconds - ms) after lRes
  
  put lRes
end mouseUp


lRes : (In the msg box :)  20 6054 473 6380  (20 (my result) <-> 6054 (your
result)  and 473 (my result) <> 6380 (your result) !!!)

The first part of my initContainer (argument checking) takes .... zero to one
milliseconds !!


Jan