{"id":1065,"date":"2021-02-09T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T02:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:03:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T22:03:21","slug":"convert-to-or-convert-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.great-white-software.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/09\/convert-to-or-convert-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Convert To or Convert From ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A while back I started thinking that some of the new style Xojo is using is awkward but it never really struck me why it felt that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After working with new releases for a while I know what I find strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes you tell an instance to do something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
var someInteger as Integer\nvar s as string\ns = someInteger.ToString<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
for instance tells out integer instance someInteger<\/code> to convert itself to a string. THe style is very much object verb<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except when its not<\/p>\n\n\n\n
var someStringArray() as String\nvar s as string\ns = someStringArray.ToString \/\/ NOPE - this does not compile<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
No in this case we do not tell our “object” , the array, to convert itself to a string like we do many other things. In this case we have to tell the String “type” to make a string From an Array<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Var someStringArray() As String\ns = String.FromArray(someStringArray)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Yet there are many other places where ToString does exist. Here’s a handful in the Language reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Thats not to say the “From type” conversion doesnt make sense. There are lots of places it does. For things that have constructors i makes sense that the “convert from” method might be a constructor, or maybe a shared factory method that returns a new fully created instance. Or maybe its the operator_convert initializer that can return a fully constructed instance. I had a long discussion with Aaron about whether a constructor vs factory vs operator_convert makes more sense and there are some interesting considerations he brought up but I wont go into those details here. Maybe another post another day.
For intrinsic non-reference types like Integer, string, boolean etc where there is no means to use a constructor the choices are really limited. But even in that case we see that things like booleans, integers, colors etc have both a ToString and FromString – something arrays do not have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That seems particularly inconsistent with all the efforts Xojo is going to to make the language more consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now I know why I find it jarring that its missing for arrays to be able to tell them to convert To String.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A while back I started thinking that some of the new style Xojo is using is awkward but it never really struck me why it felt that way. After working with new releases for a while I know what I find strange. Sometimes you tell an instance to do something. for instance tells out integer … <\/p>\n
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