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NAME

       proplists - Support functions for property lists.

DESCRIPTION

       Property  lists  are ordinary lists containing entries in the form of either tuples, whose first elements
       are keys used for lookup and insertion, or atoms, which work as shorthand for tuples {Atom, true}. (Other
       terms are allowed in the lists, but are ignored by this module.) If there is more than  one  entry  in  a
       list  for  a certain key, the first occurrence normally overrides any later (irrespective of the arity of
       the tuples).

       Property lists are useful for representing inherited properties, such as options  passed  to  a  function
       where  a user can specify options overriding the default settings, object properties, annotations, and so
       on.

       Two keys are considered equal if they match (=:=). That is, numbers are compared literally rather than by
       value, so that, for example, 1 and 1.0 are different keys.

DATA TYPES

       property() = atom() | tuple()

       proplist() = [property()]

EXPORTS

       append_values(Key, ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 ListIn = ListOut = [term()]

              Similar to get_all_values/2, but each value is wrapped in a list unless it  is  already  itself  a
              list. The resulting list of lists is concatenated. This is often useful for "incremental" options.

              Example:

              append_values(a, [{a, [1,2]}, {b, 0}, {a, 3}, {c, -1}, {a, [4]}])

              returns:

              [1,2,3,4]

       compact(ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 ListIn = ListOut = [property()]

              Minimizes  the  representation of all entries in the list. This is equivalent to [property(P) || P
              <- ListIn].

              See also property/1, unfold/1.

       delete(Key, List) -> List

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Deletes all entries associated with Key from List.

       expand(Expansions, ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 Expansions = [{Property :: property(), Expansion :: [term()]}]
                 ListIn = ListOut = [term()]

              Expands particular properties to corresponding sets of properties (or other terms). For each  pair
              {Property,  Expansion}  in  Expansions:  if  E  is  the first entry in ListIn with the same key as
              Property, and E and Property have equivalent normal forms, then E is replaced with  the  terms  in
              Expansion, and any following entries with the same key are deleted from ListIn.

              For example, the following expressions all return [fie, bar, baz, fum]:

              expand([{foo, [bar, baz]}], [fie, foo, fum])
              expand([{{foo, true}, [bar, baz]}], [fie, foo, fum])
              expand([{{foo, false}, [bar, baz]}], [fie, {foo, false}, fum])

              However, no expansion is done in the following call because {foo, false} shadows foo:

              expand([{{foo, true}, [bar, baz]}], [{foo, false}, fie, foo, fum])

              Notice  that if the original property term is to be preserved in the result when expanded, it must
              be included in the expansion list. The inserted terms are not expanded recursively. If  Expansions
              contains more than one property with the same key, only the first occurrence is used.

              See also normalize/2.

       from_map(Map) -> List

              Types:

                 Map = #{Key => Value}
                 List = [{Key, Value}]
                 Key = Value = term()

              Converts the map Map to a property list.

       get_all_values(Key, List) -> [term()]

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Similar to get_value/2, but returns the list of values for all entries {Key, Value} in List. If no
              such entry exists, the result is the empty list.

       get_bool(Key, List) -> boolean()

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Returns  the  value  of  a boolean key/value option. If lookup(Key, List) would yield {Key, true},
              this function returns true, otherwise false.

              See also get_value/2, lookup/2.

       get_keys(List) -> [term()]

              Types:

                 List = [term()]

              Returns an unordered list of the keys used in List, not containing duplicates.

       get_value(Key, List) -> term()

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Equivalent to get_value(Key, List, undefined).

       get_value(Key, List, Default) -> term()

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]
                 Default = term()

              Returns the value of a simple key/value property in List. If lookup(Key, List) would  yield  {Key,
              Value}, this function returns the corresponding Value, otherwise Default.

              See also get_all_values/2, get_bool/2, get_value/2, lookup/2.

       is_defined(Key, List) -> boolean()

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Returns true if List contains at least one entry associated with Key, otherwise false.

       lookup(Key, List) -> none | tuple()

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Returns the first entry associated with Key in List, if one exists, otherwise returns none. For an
              atom A in the list, the tuple {A, true} is the entry associated with A.

              See also get_bool/2, get_value/2, lookup_all/2.

       lookup_all(Key, List) -> [tuple()]

              Types:

                 Key = term()
                 List = [term()]

              Returns  the  list of all entries associated with Key in List. If no such entry exists, the result
              is the empty list.

              See also lookup/2.

       normalize(ListIn, Stages) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 ListIn = [term()]
                 Stages = [Operation]
                 Operation =
                     {aliases, Aliases} |
                     {negations, Negations} |
                     {expand, Expansions}
                 Aliases = Negations = [{Key, Key}]
                 Expansions = [{Property :: property(), Expansion :: [term()]}]
                 ListOut = [term()]

              Passes ListIn through a sequence of  substitution/expansion  stages.  For  an  aliases  operation,
              function substitute_aliases/2 is applied using the specified list of aliases:

                * For  a  negations  operation,  substitute_negations/2  is applied using the specified negation
                  list.

                * For an expand operation, function expand/2 is applied using the specified list of expansions.

              The final result is automatically compacted (compare compact/1).

              Typically you want to  substitute  negations  first,  then  aliases,  then  perform  one  or  more
              expansions  (sometimes you want to pre-expand particular entries before doing the main expansion).
              You might want to substitute negations and/or aliases repeatedly,  to  allow  such  forms  in  the
              right-hand side of aliases and expansion lists.

              See also substitute_negations/2.

       property(PropertyIn) -> PropertyOut

              Types:

                 PropertyIn = PropertyOut = property()

              Creates  a normal form (minimal) representation of a property. If PropertyIn is {Key, true}, where
              Key is an atom, Key is returned, otherwise the whole term PropertyIn is returned.

              See also property/2.

       property(Key, Value) -> Property

              Types:

                 Key = Value = term()
                 Property = atom() | {term(), term()}

              Creates a normal form (minimal) representation of a simple  key/value  property.  Returns  Key  if
              Value is true and Key is an atom, otherwise a tuple {Key, Value} is returned.

              See also property/1.

       split(List, Keys) -> {Lists, Rest}

              Types:

                 List = Keys = [term()]
                 Lists = [[term()]]
                 Rest = [term()]

              Partitions  List  into a list of sublists and a remainder. Lists contains one sublist for each key
              in Keys, in the corresponding order. The relative  order  of  the  elements  in  each  sublist  is
              preserved  from the original List. Rest contains the elements in List that are not associated with
              any of the specified keys, also with their original relative order preserved.

              Example:

              split([{c, 2}, {e, 1}, a, {c, 3, 4}, d, {b, 5}, b], [a, b, c])

              returns:

              {[[a], [{b, 5}, b],[{c, 2}, {c, 3, 4}]], [{e, 1}, d]}

       substitute_aliases(Aliases, ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 Aliases = [{Key, Key}]
                 Key = term()
                 ListIn = ListOut = [term()]

              Substitutes keys of properties. For each entry in ListIn, if it is associated  with  some  key  K1
              such that {K1, K2} occurs in Aliases, the key of the entry is changed to K2. If the same K1 occurs
              more than once in Aliases, only the first occurrence is used.

              For  example,  substitute_aliases([{color, colour}], L) replaces all tuples {color, ...} in L with
              {colour, ...}, and all atoms color with colour.

              See also normalize/2, substitute_negations/2.

       substitute_negations(Negations, ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 Negations = [{Key1, Key2}]
                 Key1 = Key2 = term()
                 ListIn = ListOut = [term()]

              Substitutes keys of boolean-valued properties and simultaneously negates their  values.  For  each
              entry  in  ListIn, if it is associated with some key K1 such that {K1, K2} occurs in Negations: if
              the entry was {K1, true}, it is replaced with {K2, false}, otherwise with K2,  thus  changing  the
              name  of  the  option and simultaneously negating the value specified by get_bool(Key, ListIn). If
              the same K1 occurs more than once in Negations, only the first occurrence is used.

              For example, substitute_negations([{no_foo, foo}], L) replaces any atom no_foo or  tuple  {no_foo,
              true} in L with {foo, false}, and any other tuple {no_foo, ...} with foo.

              See also get_bool/2, normalize/2, substitute_aliases/2.

       to_map(List) -> Map

              Types:

                 List = [Shorthand | {Key, Value} | term()]
                 Map = #{Shorthand => true, Key => Value}
                 Shorthand = atom()
                 Key = Value = term()

              Converts the property list List to a map.

              Shorthand  atom values in List will be expanded to an association of the form Atom => true. Tuples
              of the form {Key, Value} in List will be converted to an association of the  form  Key  =>  Value.
              Anything else will be silently ignored.

              If the same key appears in List multiple times, the value of the one appearing nearest to the head
              of  List  will  be  in  the  result  map,  that  is  the value that would be returned by a call to
              get_value(Key, List).

              Example:

              to_map([a, {b, 1}, {c, 2}, {c, 3}])

              returns:

              #{a => true, b => 1, c => 2}

       to_map(List, Stages) -> Map

              Types:

                 List = [term()]
                 Stages = [Operation]
                 Operation =
                     {aliases, Aliases} |
                     {negations, Negations} |
                     {expand, Expansions}
                 Aliases = Negations = [{Key, Key}]
                 Expansions = [{Property :: property(), Expansion :: [term()]}]
                 Map = #{term() => term()}

              Converts the property list List to a map after applying the normalizations given in Stages.

              See also normalize/2, to_map/1.

       unfold(ListIn) -> ListOut

              Types:

                 ListIn = ListOut = [term()]

              Unfolds all occurrences of atoms in ListIn to tuples {Atom, true}.

Ericsson AB                                      stdlib 4.3.1.3                                  proplists(3erl)