Topic: Autolisp Conversion Functions Graphic

[Ben Clark]

Anybody else make anything like this?

[MP]

mine was a gif

[Ben Clark]

mine was a gif

Is that a knock at my png file size being larger than necessary?

Also: care to share?

[MP]

Is that a knock at my png file size being larger than necessary?

naw, mere frivolity

Also: care to share?

I doubt I've anything new to share: numeric / string conversions have been posted ad nauseum to the swamp for 15 years.

{shrug}

[Ben Clark]

Yea

I doubt I've anything new to share: numeric / string conversions have been posted ad nauseum to the swamp for 15 years.

I figured this was the case.

[MP]

If you search for either of these terms (rtos itoa distof) there's an ark full of hits:

For example, Stringless Rounds.

[Lee Mac]

IMO, the function names already give away their purpose -

rtos     =   Real     to String
atof     =   ASCII    to Float
distof   =   Distance to Float
angtos   =   Angle    to String
angtof   =   Angle    to Float
itoa     =   Integer  to ASCII
atoi     =   ASCII    to Integer

[Grrr1337]

To extend a bit Lee's answer, you might want to check the methods of the utility object:

Code: [Select]

_$ (vlax-dump-object (vla-get-Utility (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object))) t)
; IAcadUtility: A series of methods provided for utility purposes
; No properties
; Methods supported:
;   AngleFromXAxis (2)
;   AngleToReal (2)
;   AngleToString (3)
;   CreateTypedArray (3)
;   DistanceToReal (2)
;   GetAngle (2)
;   GetCorner (2)
;   GetDistance (2)
;   GetEntity (3)
;   GetInput ()
;   GetInteger (1)
;   GetKeyword (1)
;   GetObjectIdString (2)
;   GetOrientation (2)
;   GetPoint (2)
;   GetReal (1)
;   GetRemoteFile (3)
;   GetString (2)
;   GetSubEntity (5)
;   InitializeUserInput (2)
;   IsRemoteFile (2)
;   IsURL (1)
;   LaunchBrowserDialog (6)
;   PolarPoint (3)
;   Prompt (1)
;   PutRemoteFile (2)
;   RealToString (3)
;   SendModelessOperationEnded (1)
;   SendModelessOperationStart (1)
;   TranslateCoordinates (5)
T

[Ben Clark]

IMO, the function names already give away their purpose -

rtos     =   Real     to String
atof     =   ASCII    to Float
distof   =   Distance to Float
angtos   =   Angle    to String
angtof   =   Angle    to Float
itoa     =   Integer  to ASCII
atoi     =   ASCII    to Integer

They indeed do. The confusing thing to me is the usage of two different terms for strings and reals. A real could either be r (real) or f (float); a string could either be s (string) or a (ascii). This is probably the most accurate way to represent it, but that doesn't help my memorization.

I'm sure those that engage in autolisp often enough have these pretty well memorized. I myself needed a graphic.

[MP]

Does this help?

[dgorsman]

Real, float, oogaboogavalue... doesn't matter what the function is named.  Same thing with strings.  Just because it's (atof ...) instead of (stor ...) doesn't change anything.

[Ben Clark]

Real, float, oogaboogavalue... doesn't matter what the function is named.  Same thing with strings.  Just because it's (atof ...) instead of (stor ...) doesn't change anything.

Of course it doesn't change anything programmatically.

My point is that it makes the conversion functions hard to memorize, hence the info-graphic.

[Grrr1337]

I screenshot-ed Lee's post, and after that Michael posts a sweet short reference! 
Maybe using a set of custom functions with different names would help (but that might be be a bad habit) :

Code: [Select]

; d - distance (string)
; a - angle
; s - string
; r - real
; i - integer
(setq
  d->r distof ; Dist to Float   | (distof str [mode])
  a->r angtof ; Angle to Float  | (angtof str [units])
  a->s angtos ; Angle to String | (angtos angle [unit [precision]])
  s->r atof   ; ASCII to Float  | (atof str)
  r->s rtos   ; Real to Str     | (rtos real [mode [precision]])
  i->s itoa   ; Int to ASCII    | (itoa int)
  s->i atoi   ; ASCII to Int    | (atoi str)
); setq
BTW there are also vl-prin1-to-string read prin(c/1/t) functions.

I'm sure those that engage in autolisp often enough have these pretty well memorized. I myself needed a graphic.

This is true, one just have to code alot to get used.

[MP]

Nice idea but I honestly think it’s better to just learn the proper function names. There are far bigger hurdles in one’s programming journey. Syntactic misdirection is not empowering nor does it make debugging a joy. /2’