Re: dynamic object creation

The example is below:

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Jean-Christophe Boggio wrote:

> Hi Indraneel,
> 
> IM> I'm converting a complex flatfile where records are arranged serially.
> IM> some fields are as 'n' times repeating blocks of multiple lines. Some
> IM> subfields within these are also 'n' time repeating blocks of multiple
> IM> lines. So in my main table I do not know (until at run time) how many
> IM> fields to create (same for any sub tables). How can I do this dynamically?
> 
> IM> I tried using arrays, but retrieval from that is causing some problems. I
> IM> have already checked the array utilities in the contrib section and have
> IM> extended the operator list for other types (I'll send the file to it's
> IM> original author so that he may include it if he wishes).
> 
> IM> I think there must be some object-oriented way of doing this without
> IM> creating too many keys. or are keys the only and best method? Using this
> IM> is causing a performance hit. If it's any help, what I'm trying to convert
> IM> are biological databases distributed in 'SRS' flatfile format from
> IM> ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/
> 
> Could you be more precise, give an example of 2 "variable-length"
> records ?

-------------example---------------

ID   ACP_DOMAIN; MATRIX.
AC   PS50075;
DT   NOV-1997 (CREATED); NOV-1997 (DATA UPDATE); JUL-1998 (INFO UPDATE).
DE   Acyl carrier protein phosphopantetheine domain profile.
MA   /GENERAL_SPEC: ALPHABET='ABCDEFGHIKLMNPQRSTVWYZ'; LENGTH=71;
MA   /DISJOINT: DEFINITION=PROTECT; N1=6; N2=66;
MA   /NORMALIZATION: MODE=1; FUNCTION=LINEAR; R1=2.3; R2=.02281121; TEXT='NScore';
MA   /CUT_OFF: LEVEL=0; SCORE=271; N_SCORE=8.5; MODE=1;
MA   /CUT_OFF: LEVEL=-1; SCORE=184; N_SCORE=6.5; MODE=1;
MA   /DEFAULT: D=-20; I=-20; B1=-80; E1=-80; MI=-105; MD=-105; IM=-105; DM=-105; MM=1; M0=-1;
NR   /RELEASE=38,80000;
NR   /TOTAL=173(116); /POSITIVE=173(116); /UNKNOWN=0(0); /FALSE_POS=0(0);
NR   /FALSE_NEG=0; /PARTIAL=3;
CC   /TAXO-RANGE=??EP?; /MAX-REPEAT=5;

----------------end---------------------------

here the row starting with /CUT_OFF may be present 'ni' times and the
values for N_SCORE may be present 'nj' times (both 'ni' and 'nj' are
unknown till at run time). Similiarly for /NORMALIZATION (which may be
present multiple times) and Rx (R1, R2, etc). Also for /DEFAULT line
(which may occur more than 1 time) and the values it contains.

I can use an array, but retrieving the data will be a problem. One method
might be to define my own types but then in the end how do I face the
problem that number of entries are variable? Again another array? Or do I
have to use a lot of tables with indexes (which will also be bulky and
slow)?

thanks,
Indraneel

> --
> Jean-Christophe Boggio
> cat@thefreecat.org
> Independant Consultant and Developer
> Delphi, Linux, Oracle, Perl
> 
> 

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