For, Else If and Switch/Case support for Macro Language
April 24, 2021
Today Macro Language gets a major update with many new features that makes building macros easier than ever.
For Loop
Macro Language had ForEach statement to loop over an array, and While statement for any other loops. With this update, it now has support for For statement which works similar to many other programming languages. Here is an example of how this can make things easier:Old
New
// Add numbers from 1 to 10
$sum = 0
$i = 0
While ($i <= 10)
$sum += $i
$i += 1
While ($i <= 10)
$sum += $i
$i += 1
// Add numbers from 1 to 10
$sum = 0
For ($i = 1, $i <= 10, ++$i)
$sum += $i
For ($i = 1, $i <= 10, ++$i)
$sum += $i
Else If
Another addition to the Macro Language is Else If statement. This makes checking multiple conditions much easier compared to what was possible with the old nested If/Else statementsOld
New
If ($width < 100)
// handle small width
Else
If ($width < 500)
// handle medium width
Else
If ($width < 1000)
// handle large width
Else
// handle extra large width
If ($width < 100)
// handle small width
Else If ($width < 500)
// handle medium width
Else If ($width < 1000)
// handle large width
Else
// handle extra large width
Switch/Case
Similar to If/Else If/Else structure, you can also now use Switch/Case/Default structure if you are always comparing the same value. Note that Switch/Case requires Break statements to stop processing a Case, otherwise it moves onto the next Case:Old
New
If ($scope == "Current Page")
// handle current page
Else
If (($scope == "Current Section") || ($scope == "Current Section Group"))
// handle current section or section group
Else
If ($scope == "Current Notebook")
// handle current notebook
Else
// handle all notebooks
Switch ($scope)
Case "Current Page":
// handle current page
Break 1
Case "Current Section":
Case "Current Section Group":
// handle current section or section group
Break 1
Case "Current Notebook":
// handle current notebook
Break 1
Default:
// handle all notebooks
Increment/Decrement Operators
Yet another addition is the increment and decrement operators, which can be either pre-increment/decrement or post-increment/decrement. As in many similar languages, pre-increment/decrement operators will modify the value before returning it while post-increment/decrement operators will do so after returning the original value.Old
New
// Pre-increment
// Increment $a and then copy that to $b
$a += 1
$b = $a
// Pre-decrement
// Decrement $a and then copy that to $b
$a -= 1
$b = $a
// Post-increment
// Copy $a to $b and then increment $a
$b = $a
$a += 1
// Post-decrement
// Copy $a to $b and then decrement $a
$b = $a
$a -= 1
// Pre-increment
// Increment $a and then copy that to $b
$b = ++$a
// Pre-decrement
// Decrement $a and then copy that to $b
$b = --$a
// Post-increment
// Copy $a to $b and then increment $a
$b = $a++
// Post-decrement
// Copy $a to $b and then decrement $a
$b = $a--
Operator Precedence
The final part of this update introduces operator precedence. In macro expressions, following operator precedence rules apply. The order of operations can be changed by providing parantheses. The Expression Editor automatically fully parenthesizes any expression so that what operator precedence rules were used is obvious. If you type 5 == 2 + 3 * 4 to Expression Editor it will automatically parse and convert it to 5 == (2 + (3 * 4)).| Precedence | Category | Operators | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Increment/Decrement | ++ | –– | |||||||
| 2 | Unary | ! | – | + | ||||||
| 3 | Product | * | / | % | ||||||
| 4 | Sum & Concatenation | + | – | & | ||||||
| 5 | Comparison | == | != | < | <= | > | >= | |||
| 6 | Logical And | && | ||||||||
| 7 | Logical Or | || | ||||||||
| 8 | Ternary | ?: | ||||||||
| 9 | Assignment | = | += | –= | *= | /= | %= | &&= | ||= | &= |
Comments
Rob - 2021-06-11
Bravo! These are great features which help take the language to the next level. It's great to see you investing in this great product.
JBM - 2021-06-02
I notice that when I clip an entire article from a web site into OneNote, often the author's name (if hyperlinked) does not copy over. Is there a macro that would prevent this from happening? Many thanks.