Zugg Software :: View topic - Making a list of names with a number associated

Apprentice Joined: 19 Aug 2002 Posts: 120 Location: USA

Ok... I have a command I want to make called "phone".... now with this command, I want to be able to type phone store <name> <number>, and have it store the name and number into a variable. Then, If I type phone call <name>, I want it to "call <number associated with name>", and if I give it no arguements, I just want it to "phone"... It sounded simple until I started trying to make it... but I'm sure it still is relatively simple, would anyone be willing to help me out here?

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 4379 Location: USA

Ok, storing the numbers can be easily accomplished with a record variable. This way, you'll be able to associate each name with its number and easily retrieve a number by name. As for having the alias react based on the arguments you give it, you can use the %1..%n variables for that:

#ALIAS phone {#IF (%1) {#IF (%1 = "store") {#ADDKEY phoneList {%2} {%3}} {#IF (%1 = "call") {call %db(@phoneList, %2)} {#SAY Invalid argument to phone}}} {~phone}}

What the alias does is to first check if %1 is defined. If it is not, then no arguments where given to the command and it just sends "phone" (the ~ is necessary to prevent zMUD from thinking it is a recursive call to the same alias).

If there is an argument, it first checks to see if the first argument is "store". If it is not "store", then it checks to see if it is "call". If it is not "call", then it outputs an error message.

If the first argument is "store", the alias uses the #ADDKEY command to add a new key-value pair to the record variable @phoneList. If the key already exists within the record variable, the #ADDKEY command replaces its value with the new one supploed.

Finally, if the first argument is "call", the alias sends the "call" command to the MUD followed by whatever value is associated with the specified key. To look this value up in the record variable, it uses the %db function.

Apprentice Joined: 19 Aug 2002 Posts: 120 Location: USA

Thank you very much Kjata, and thank you for the explanation of the alias as well, I AM doing my best to learn how to do this stuff