Importing a #list expression from another file

sc1540

Hello,

I've been trying to define lists in .inc files in order to recall a specific one from the main INP file, instead of defining all of them in the INP file. I would do this, e.g., to switch between two sets of patterns in a sequential refinement, or where there could be lists with thousands of values.

Based on the macros in (http://topas.dur.ac.uk/topaswiki/doku.php?id=sequential_refinements), I defined this, which behaves as expected:

#list nr {
0014
0015
0016}
macro index {nr(Run_Number)}

Then I move the list to a_list.inc and try to call it from main.inp:

''' a_list.inc
macro List_A {
#list nr {
014
015
016}
}

''' main.inp
#include a_list.inc
#list recall_list {List_A}  ' 1st try: this expands to nothing
#list recall_list {nr}       ' 2nd try: this expands to nothing
macro recall_list {nr}     ' 3rd try: this expands to "nr(0)" and not the respective value
macro index {recall_list(Run_Number)}

I also tried to make the following definitions work, but to no avail:
''' a_list.inc

macro List_A {
#list nr {
14
15
16}
return nr
}

macro List_A {
14
15
16
}

Thanks for any help!
Stefano

johnsoevans

It's not a proper answer to your question, but I normally do this just by folding the lists away in jEdit so they don't take up space in the INP file and put them in #ifdef...#endif blocks:

#ifdef use_data1
'{{{ hidden data1 #list values here

'}}}
#else
'{{{ hidden data2 #list values here
- '}}}
  #endif
  
  Will think about the #include question.
  
  John

alancoelho

Hi Stefano

The following wont expand list_content into the nr list.

macro list_contents { a b c }

#list nr { list_contents }

I will think on how best to have macros operational inside a list. There could be some unintended consequences. A special character sequence may be needed.

What you can do is define the whole inside a macro; ie.

macro macro_list { #list nr { a b c } }
macro_list ' define the list
nr(0) ' use the list
nr(1) ' use the list
nr(2) ' use the list

The result of the above would be:

a
b
c

If you wanted to then change the contents of macro_list then define a new macro_list; ie.

macro macro_list { #list nr { new_a new_b new_c } }

cheers
alan