Field

The field statement is a simple method of structuring objects and fields to access values. Similar to how this would be done in Java, field or object references are separated by a period character (.). Depending on how many levels deep the statement goes within sub-objects or collections it can vary in size. Collections or Maps can use square brackets to specify an index or key to extract a particular value. Firstly though, let's look at a simple example:

acme.revenue / acme.employees.size()

In the above we have two field statements. The first is an Integer field whilst the second uses the native call 'size()' on the employee's collection*. Fields can be used in calculations or statements so long as the returned value is compatible e.g. employee.isActive / employee.dateJoined would throw a Parser exception. Moving on from this we can access specific items in collections using the following:

acme.employees[0].name

Alternative you can specify the following if the employees object was a Map:

acme.employees["#E0001354"].name

The Field statement also has a useful shortcut to extract values. Typically you would need to iterate through collections with an incrementing index, but in this case that can be done automatically to return the value:

acme.employees.firstName + " " + acme.employees.lastName

This would return an array of every employee's full name. As SLOP is open with regards to adding new types, you could get creative with the above to form new structures or filter / extract data with little to no effort.

*NOTE: Native calls can only be used if the SAFE_OPERATIONS property in the configuration object is set to true. Please see the Overview - Configuration Class for more information.