XTRAN Example — XTRAN Data Bases

The following example uses an XTRAN rule set comprising 132 non-comment lines of "meta-code" (XTRAN's rules language).

The rules took less than two hours to write and about ½ hour to debug.  (That's right, just over two hours total!)

Note that this example is not intended to be a serious data retrieval application; it is to show how using XTRAN data bases in your XTRAN rules makes code and data manipulation both easy and flexible.

For information about XTRAN data bases, click .

For an example showing how to use XTRAN to automate loading of DSV data into an XTRAN data base, click .

Using an XTRAN data base to organize and retrieve data

In this example, the XTRAN rules read data as comma-separated values (CSV), and store the data in an XTRAN data base as follows:

1st
subscript 		 2nd
subscript 		 Cell contents
<rcdnum>   Record fields, as comma-separated values
<label>    <value>    <rcdnum>s whose field labeled <label> has <value>

The rules ignore any input line that is empty or starts with a semicolon, and they assume that the first non-comment input line comprises field labels.  This is a common way to handle delimiter separated values (DSV).

The rules then repeatedly prompt the user for a field label and corresponding value for which to search, and display the records found, with the search field suppressed.

Since these XTRAN rules read and parse only text, we use a version of XTRAN that parses its own rules language, but not any other language.

NOTE that although this example happens to involve personnel data, by using different field labels and corresponding data, these exact same rules can store and retrieve any kind of data -- for instance, a global symbol cross-reference extracted from a large software system using XTRAN code analysis rules , to allow browsing the information interactively.

(We also have XTRAN rules that allow querying any DSV data interactively.)

How can such powerful and generalized data storage and retrieval be automated in 2 hours and only 132 lines of XTRAN rules?  Because there is so much capability already available as part of XTRAN's rules language.  The rules used for this example take advantage of the following functionality provided by that rules language:

The input to and output from XTRAN are untouched.



Process Flowchart

Here is a flowchart for this process, in which the elements are color coded:

process flowchart

Input to XTRAN:

; Field labels:

last-name,first-name,age,gender

; Data:

Cooper,Janice,73,F
Dodson,Frank,45,M
Dodson,Mary,43,F
Jones,William,21,M
Smith,Gregory,22,M
Smith,Alice,21,F
Smith,Lulu,3,F
Williams,Mary,63,F

Interactive results (this indicates user input):

Reading data base...

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  ?<ENTER>

    <fldnam> must be one of:  last-name,first-name,age,gender

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  first-name=Mary<ENTER>

    last-name = Dodson
    age = 43
    gender = F

    last-name = Williams
    age = 63
    gender = F

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  age=21<ENTER>

    last-name = Jones
    first-name = William
    gender = M

    last-name = Smith
    first-name = Alice
    gender = F

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  last-name=Dodson<ENTER>

    first-name = Frank
    age = 45
    gender = M

    first-name = Mary
    age = 43
    gender = F

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  age=99<ENTER>

    No records qualify.

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  gender=F<ENTER>

    last-name = Cooper
    first-name = Janice
    age = 73

    last-name = Dodson
    first-name = Mary
    age = 43

    last-name = Smith
    first-name = Alice
    age = 21

    last-name = Smith
    first-name = Lulu
    age = 3

    last-name = Williams
    first-name = Mary
    age = 63

Enter <fldnam>=<value> or ? for help [done]:  <ENTER>