SELECT Function¶
Material prepared from M Programming Book [WALTERS1997] and GT.M Programmer’s Guide
Page 92-94.
$SELECT¶
The $SELECT or $S function receives as input a list of paired expression arguments. It returns the first (and only the first) truth expression it encounters. For example:
GTM>WRITE $SELECT(0:"False",1:"True",1:"Also True")
True
If there is no true value within the input list, the function generates a run-time error. For example:
GTM>WRITE $SELECT(0:"False")
%GTM-E-SELECTFALSE, No argument to $SELECT was true
To avoid this behavior, it is a common practice to include a literal ‘1’ as the truth value of the last pair of the input list. Doing so is like defining a “default” value for the function.
Below there is an example of use of the function:
GTM>S X=5
GTM>W $S(X>10:"X is bigger than 10",X<10:"X is smaller than 10",1:"X is 10")
X is smaller than 10