B4P Reference

Function Names

count elements, count elements ignore case, count elements ignore blanks, count elements ignore both

Description

Counts the number of elements which match with the supplied value. The ordering of the elements in the parameter sets do not matter.

Attention: Comparing Boolean true and string 'true' (lower case letters) will also count because comparison is based on the single '=' comparison operator which returns true if true = "true" and vice versa.

Call as: function

Restrictions

Indirect parameter passing is disabled

Parameter count

Parameters

No.	Type	Description
1 input	parameter set or string	input parameter set If provided as a parameter set: Will be used for counting elements If provided as a quoted string: The string will be converted to a parameter set containing one element. If provided as a unquoted or softquoted string: The comma-separated substrings will be converted to parameter set elements. '' is equivalent to {}.
2 input	valid types	matching value The comparison looks into both value and type. Providing a numeral 1 is not the same as a string '1'. The parameter set will be compared with this value in order to count matches. The options 'ignore case', 'ignore blanks' and both combined will only apply if the values compared are strings. If the value is an unquoted string or softquoted string, then wildcard symbols are supported.

Return value

Type	Description
numeral	Number of elements identified Number of elements (nested elements are not counted)

Examples

      print ( count elements( { Amy, Amsel, Bea, Beat, Charles, Charly }, 'Am*' ),", " ); // 2

      print( count elements( { Amy, Amsel, Bea, Beat, Charles, Charly }, "Am*" ), ", " ); // 0

      echo ( count elements ignore case( { Amy, Amsel, Bea, Beat, Charles, Charly }, amsel ) ); // 1

      print ( count elements( { 1, true, false, true, 2 }, true ), ", " ); // 2

      print ( count elements( { 1, true, false, true, 2 }, "true" ), ", " ); // 2 (true = 'true') case

      echo( count elements( { 1, '1', 2, '2' }, 'true' ) ); // 0



      // Subsets

      print( count elements( { a,b,c,{d,e} }, {d,e} ), ", " ); // 1

      echo( count elements( { a,b,c,{d,e} }, {e,d} ) ); // 1

Output

2, 0, 1
2, 2, 0
1, 1

Try it yourself: Open LIB_Function_count_elements.b4p in B4P_Examples.zip. Decompress before use.

count elements ...