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Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Hey all.

I'm trying to find the best way to "stack" multiple items in a room inventory, to reduce screen-spam. Typical output might be:

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Collect the output into a stringlist, using %additem() so that you can have duplicate items in the list.
Let us say that the stringlist you create is named @itemlist.
Then execute the following:

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Makes sense on paper. Now to figure out the actual code...

The items to be stacked will always follow after the exits of a room (and are ansi-colored if that matters). They're specific items I want stacking, not any random items, so theoretically their sdesc could be placed in an array.

For example:

Random Room Name
Random Room Desc
Obvious exits:
East - Random Room
West - Random Room
A crimson dagger lies here.
A crimson dagger lies here.
A corpse is here.

What I want to stack are only the crimson daggers, for example.

So, how should I go about the trigger's pattern? Is there a way to have it search against an array, right after the exits?

I don't mind poking around more on my own, but I think I'll need a bit more of a push in the right direction. :)

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:18 pm

I had something like this worked out once upon a time... but it wasn't consistant and i couldn't exactly figure out why.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Yes, there is a way to have it watch only for specific objects, such as crimson daggers. What you do is create a stringlist which contains all of the lines you are watching for. Then create a class. Inside that class create a trigger that watches for the lines from the stringlist, gags the line, and adds the line to a different stringlist. Create another trigger in the class that watches for the mud prompt, displays the items, then disables the class. Outside the class, create another trigger that watches for your exit line and enables the class.

I think the following commands should create something that works. It assumes that your prompt is ">" so edit it if your prompt is something different. And of course, edit the CountItems variable so that it contains the strings you are actually looking for. Execute these commands on the command line to create the triggers you need.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Thanks, both of ya!

Rahab, I went with your frame and it works... mostly.

It's masking the right variables, it's carrying them over to the temp list in full, the triggers themselves work fine, however... There's a problem somewhere in the loop. For example in my testing room I have seven different string objects that are within my stringlist to compact. They're masked and placed in the temp list, but in the output, only three of those stringlists are counted. They're also cut.

The problem lies with commas in the object descriptions. Objects without commas in their description aren't printing at all (ex. "A red dagger lies here." doesn't print at all). Only objects with a comma are printing, but they're also only printing up until the comma (ex. "A blue dagger, not a red one, lies here." counts and prints but returns as "A red dagger x3").

Any thoughts on how to escape/deal with the comma issue?

Also, is there any easy way to insert the counted strings before the prompt instead of after it? Othan than some complex way of masking and re-printing it I mean.

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

I can't reproduce the problem with the commas, no idea why that would happen. As for inserting the counted strings before the prompt, the easiest way would be to do exactly what you said, it wouldn't be complex at all. In your prompt trigger, just insert a #GAG at the top and a #SHOW %line at the bottom. If you have color in your prompt, you probably also want to check the ansi trigger box so it gets preserved.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Yep, ended up using a #GAG;#CR just now to gag the prompt and spit a new one afterwards. :)

The original text that's being gagged and counted has ansi color. I've reproduced that in the post-count output, but I'm wondering if that one of the reasons the loop is failing? Not sure what else might be the cause... The values are stored in full in the temp stringlist.

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

Ah, that could definitely be the problem. If you're using an ansi trigger, all the ansi codes must be present in the pattern, or else it won't match.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Oh, the pattern matches fine... Everything is working, up until the actual loop. Which is:

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

Actually, it looks like it's a bug in the %countlist function. I'll start a new bug report thread. Until it gets fixed, I suggest changing your stacklist variable to a database variable, and keeping track of how many of each item are in the room directly in it.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Aha! I was going crazy trying to think of what might be wrong...

Any ideas on how to modify the script Rahab shared to work with a db variable instead of a stringlist? I've been trying to learn to use them lately (instead of a full-fledged db) but I'm still a ways from having a handle on them.

Also, would there be any way to maintain the original ansi colors of a line I'm gagging, without having to recolor it myself? The items I'm trying to stack are all one color, but inevitably there are rooms with objects in it aside from those I'm stacking that sometimes have complex ansi (ex. custom colored player objects).

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Bleh! Too bad %countlist has a bug; it was designed for exactly this type of thing. Here a a workaround using Daern's suggestion of a db variable. Note that this only uses @countitems, not @itemlist:

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Ok.. Implemented that. Now I'm not getting anything, besides lines not matching a var in the list.

The addkey trigger's fine, it adds to the db list. The loop trigger does fire fine, because it's doing the rest of what it's supposed to, like gagging the prompt and resetting the keys. But the #SHOW's are a no go.

Thoughts?

Also, scratch my last question about color. It occured to me those items wouldn't be gagged to begin with, so no worries.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Is the ">" trigger firing on your prompt?

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Yep, it is. I re-wrote to match my prompt and it matches fine. And the trigger itself fires fine, because it's going through the looped IF's and resetting the keys to 0. I disabled that line to check, and the count is accurate, and is being correctly set to 0 afterwards.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Are we sure %key is the right call and #SHOW the right function for this? I get that it -should- work. I mean the LOOPDB example is practically the same code. It just doesn't seem to working...

I tried a few different combinations with #SHOWDB, %dbvar, etc. but so far I haven't gotten far.

This:

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

%dbkey is not a valid term in zscript. I presume you meant to use %key, which is a predefined variable that is defined only within the confines of a #LOOPDB structure.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

Actually, I believe that everything is displaying just fine. The problem is that when it displays the keys, the first trigger fires again, gagging your output and changing the variable - you just can't see that change because immediately after the display in your loop (when the first trigger fires and changes the variable) you're setting it back to zero. Changing the #SHOWs to #PRINT should fix the problem. #SHOW will fire triggers, #PRINT won't.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Gah...good catch, Daern!

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Yes! Nice work Daern! After the %countlist bug I was starting to second-guess every function. ;)

Works like a charm now, and I learned a bit more about db variables to boot! And we found a bug. And as a bonus, with the way its set up I can choose to apply it selectively with a #T+ in a room's script, so it's not running constantly and slowing things down.

Thanks a ton, both Daern and Rahab!

For bonus points, I'll ask one last question. Is there a way to indicate an end-of-line in the pattern or the db var key, so that "A red dagger." is matched but "A red dagger. (glowing)" isn't?

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

In patterns, ^ matches the start of the line and $ matches the end of the line. You can't add it to individual keys in the variable though, it needs to go directly in the pattern, so it's all or nothing.

Beginner Joined: 30 Jun 2011 Posts: 23

Hrm. Well, I wouldn't mind all or nothing as I'd like it to ignore every (glowing) item. However ({@itemlist$}) seems to ignore both types of objects, regular and glowing. All other entries count fine, but if there's a regular and glowing version of the item in the room, it won't stack either of them.

Something I'm doing wrong?

Update: Oddly it only does that with the first entry in the db variable list. However, that's also the only entry it effects. For rooms with say a normal and glowing item that's further down the variable list, it appears to ignore the $ and stacks them all together.

Sorcerer Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 809

You need to put the $ outside the }). You might want to read over the documentation on Pattern Matching at some point Wink

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