Table of Contents
# $EPIC: indextoitem.txt,v 1.2 2006/08/01 03:40:36 sthalik Exp $
Synopsis:
$indextoitem(<array> <index number>) $itemtoindex(<array> <item number>)
Technical:
These functions are used to convert between array item numbers are index numbers.
Item numbers are counted incrementally as items are added to an array, starting at 0 (zero). Each new item uses the next available item number; if there are 5 items in an array, the next item that may be added is item number 5 (remember that we count from zero… 5 items is 0..4).
Index numbers represent each items position in the array when sorted. Items are sorted based on their ascii values. This is generally alphabetical; however, since it is based on ascii values, all capital letters are sorted after all lowercase letters. It follows a sorting algorithm similar to the $sort() function's.
Practical:
The $indextoitem() function converts an index number in the given array to its corresponding item number; $itemtoindex() does just the opposite. This is mostly useful in conjunction with $igetitem() or $ifinditem(), allowing an array to be dealt with in a logical order.
Returns:
-2 cannot find index/item number in array -1 cannot find named array > -1 item number corresponding to given index number (and vice verse)
Examples:
$setitem(booya 0 hello) $setitem(booya 1 goodbye) $itemtoindex(booya 0) returns 1 $indextoitem(booya 1) returns 0 $itemtoindex(foobar 0) returns -1 $itemtoindex(booya 100) returns -2