Math problem

[J. Landman Gay]

On 2/18/12 7:41 PM, Peter M. Brigham, MD wrote:
> I picked this trick up from someone along the way, on this list I
> believe, I've lost track of where it came from, so credit goes to
> someone else.

It may be from something I posted to the HyperCard list eons ago. I got 
it from Paul Foraker, who worked on the HC team. He got it from Tony 
Root, who's the original author. It's been in my script repository ever 
since, I've used variations on it for years, and every time I use it I 
*still* have to figure it out all over again. Here are my notes:


function whichOne var,fld1,fld2
-- from a handler by Tony Root
-- Handles a case where you need to return one value if your key is 
empty, another if not.

   return (item offset(char 1 of (var = empty),"tf") of quote & fld1 
&","& fld2 & quote)
end whichOne


----------- Paul Foraker writes: ------------

"There's a great scripter working at Digital Pictures named Tony Root, 
who wrote a one-line boolean evaluator that I corrupted into a function. 
This handles the case where you need to return one value if your key is 
empty, another if not. For example, if the social security number field 
(var) is empty, then return "Please fill in your social security number" 
(fld1); otherwise, return "Now please fill in the form on the next 
page." (fld2). The elegant part (which Tony wrote) is getting the offset 
of char 1 of an expression that resolves to true or false, of "tf". Wish 
I'd thought of that. "


-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com