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HELP PDNARGS Jonathan Laventhol, 13 May 1985 Updated: A.Sloman, Nov 1990 Updated: Adrian Howard, Sep 1992 pdnargs(P) -> INT INT -> pdnargs(P) This procedure returns (or updates) information about the number of arguments INT expected by the procedure P which is its argument. If the procedure was created using "define", then this is the number of arguments given in its definition. For example: define foo(a, b, c); enddefine; pdnargs(foo) => ** 3 Note: Normally, the -pdnargs- of a procedure is the number of items it will remove from the stack. But some procedures do explicit manipulation of the stack, and the number returned by -pdnargs- may therefore be misleading. In particular, some procedures take a variable number of arguments (for example, -printf-, -newarray-, -consvector-). These procedures still have a fixed -pdnargs-, which is the number of formal arguments in their definition. This will be the minimum number of arguments that they take. -- CLOSURES ----------------------------------------------------------- If the argument procedure is a closure, then the result is the number of arguments of the base procedure minus the number of frozen values (see HELP *CLOSURES, *PARTAPPLY). For example: vars new_foo = foo(% [hello] %); pdnargs(new_foo) => ** 2 Note: Closures of procedures which take a variable number of arguments may have a -pdnargs- that doesn't correspond to actual usage. E.g: vars make_a = consstring(%`\A`, 1%); assigns to -make_a- a procedure of 0 arguments that creates a string containing only the character `A` whenever it is called. However, pdnargs(make_a) => ** -1 The -pdnargs- of a closure is defined to be pdnargs(pdpart(closure)) - datalength(closure) ;;; (See HELP *PDPART, HELP *DATALENGTH) Example: -consvector- takes a single argument, which is the number of items from the stack to make a vector out of. So the -pdnargs- is 1. vars maketriple; consvector(% 3 %) -> maketriple; pdnargs(maketriple) => ** 0 But -maketriple- will remove three items from the stack. -- COMPOSITE PROCEDURES ----------------------------------------------- The -pdnargs- of a composite procedure is simply defined as the -pdnargs- of the first procedure, so: pdnargs(P1 <> P2) == pdnargs(P1) -- ARRAYS ------------------------------------------------------------- If the procedure is an array, the number of arguments is the number of dimensions of the array. For example: vars array = newarray([1 10], false); pdnargs(array) => ** 1 The above also applies to sparse arrays. -- PROPERTIES --------------------------------------------------------- The -pdnargs- of a property is always equal to 1. For example: vars prop = newassoc([]); pdnargs(prop)=> ** 1 -- RELATED DOCUMENTATION ---------------------------------------------- See also: REF *PROCEDURE --- for more detailed information on procedures and closures HELP *CLOSURES --- the construction and use of closures HELP *ARRAYS --- the construction and use of arrays HELP *PROPERTIES --- the construction and use of properties HELP *PARTAPPLY --- produces a closure of an existing procedure HELP *FROZVAL --- accesses values frozen into procedure closures HELP *PDPROPS --- stores information about a procedure (its name etc.) HELP *DATALENGTH --- returns the number of elements in a data structure --- C.all/help/pdnargs --- Copyright University of Sussex 1992. All rights reserved. ----------