[Info-vax] Better languages than BASIC

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 22:38:55 -0500, bill wrote:

> And string handling is every bit as good as any other language.

Here, in Python, is the kind of dynamically-varying filter criteria I
did for a search function in one application. Note the inclusion of
field match checks only for fields where the user entered something:

    conditions = \
        (
            list
                ( # free-text fields
                    "%(name)s like %(value)s"
                %
                    {
                        "name" : field[0],
                        "value" :
                            sql_string("%" + escape_sql_wild(params.getvalue(field[1])) + "%"),
                    }
                for field in
                    (
                        ("make", "search_make"),
                        ("model", "search_model"),
                        ("details", "search_details"),
                        ... etc ...
                    )
                if params.getvalue(field[1]) != ""
            )
        +
            list
                ( # date fields
                    "("
                +
                    " or ".join
                        (
                            "%(name)s %(op)s %(value)s"
                        %
                            {
                                "name" : field[0],
                                "op" : op[0],
                                "value" : sql_string(params.getvalue(field[1])),
                            }
                        for op in
                            (
                                ("<", "lt"),
                                ("=", "eq"),
                                (">", "gt"),
                            )
                        if get_checkbox("%(name)s[%(op)s]" % {"name" : field[1], "op" : op[1]})
                        )
                +
                    ")"
                for field in
                    (
                        ("when_purchased", "search_when_purchased"),
                        ("warranty_expiry", "search_warranty_expiry"),
                    )
                if reduce
                    (
                        operator.__or__,
                        (
                            get_checkbox("%(name)s[%(op)s]" % {"name" : field[1], "op" : op})
                                for op in ("lt", "eq", "gt")
                        )
                    )
                )
        )

Expanding the list of conditions into the SQL query:

    found_items = get_records \
      (
        table_name = "items",
        fields =
            (
                "make", "model", "details", ... etc ...
            ),
        condition = " and ".join(conditions),
        extra = "order by make, model, inventory_nr"
      )

Have you ever managed anything similar in COBOL?