Re: [O] [babel] How to set multiple variables with properties

[Eric Schulte]

I think that a solution more integrated with the rest of Org-mode's
property handling would be preferable.  That is to say, there should be
a way to collect multiple value for a property in Org-mode, and Babel
should simply make use of the more general facility.

This doesn't exist yet, but I'd rather wait for the general Org solution
than push through a temporary Babel-specific solution.

Cheers -- Eric

Darlan Cavalcante Moreira <address@hidden> writes:

> One of the things I tried (that didn't work, otherwise I would not have
> sent any e-mail) was
> :PROPERTY:
> :var: variable1="value1" :var variable2="value2"
> :END:
>
> I thought that maybe babel would just ask org what is the value of :var:,
> put ":var" before it, and include this in the block header. Therefore I
> would get the effect of adding
> ":var variable1="value1" :var variable2="value2""
> in the block header and it could work.
>
> However, even if this method had worked It would not be flexible. One of
> the nice things about properties is inheritance. I would like to define
> "general variables" as properties in level-1 headings and define more
> specific variables in the sub-headings as necessary. However, if babel
> always use :var: as the property then defining a variable in a subheading
> will overwrite the upper level variable.
>
> The best option in my use-case-scenario would be some name scheme to
> identify variable definitions for org-babel. For instance
> :PROPERTY:
> :ob-someVariable:      "some string maybe with\nline breaks"
> :ob-someOtherVariable: 123456
> :END:
> would make the variables "someVariable" and "someOtherVariable" known to
> org-babel.
>
> --
> Darlan Cavalcante
>
> At Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:27:00 +0200,
> Christian Moe <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi again,
>> 
>> I was referring to these functions:
>> - org-entry-put-multivalued-property
>> - org-entry-get-multivalued-property
>> - org-entry-add-to-multivalued-property
>> - org-entry-remove-from-multivalued-property
>> - org-entry-member-in-multivalued-property
>> described here:
>> http://orgmode.org/manual/Using-the-property-API.html
>> 
>> I've found a few discussions:
>> - http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/33457
>> - http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2010-02/msg00251.html
>> 
>> I don't have anything working with them, as such,[1] and I was curious 
>> if anyone did. They don't currently seem to be integrated into 
>> completion, search functions, Babel, and so on, which would limit 
>> their usefulness (though searching can be done with regexps). And I 
>> think implementing wider support for them would run into a problem 
>> with distinguishing between properties that are meant to be 
>> multivalued, or and properties that just contain a single value which 
>> happens to contain spaces.
>> 
>> But handling multiple var=value expressions in a :var: property for 
>> Babel, as Darlan asked about, might perhaps be doable...? Stuff might 
>> break, though.
>> 
>> Yours,
>> Christian
>> 
>> 
>> [1] I do have a small research database with some "multivalued" 
>> properties in it. For queries, I use your org-collector and regular 
>> expression matching against properties with multiple values. The 
>> multivalued-properties functions didn't really come into it, except 
>> that knowing they were there made me go ahead and put multiple values 
>> in one property. (As it turned out, that wasn't a very good design 
>> choice.)
>> 
>> On 6/21/11 11:03 PM, Eric Schulte wrote:
>> > Hi Christian,
>> >
>> > That's the first I've heard of that variable?  If you do get something
>> > working with multivalued properties please do share.
>> >
>> > Cheers -- Eric
>> >
>> > Christian Moe<address@hidden>  writes:
>> >
>> >> Hi, Eric,
>> >>
>> >> Just curious: What about the org-entry--multivalued-property functions
>> >> mentioned in "Using the properties API"?
>> >>
>> >> Is anybody using multivalued properties for anything?
>> >>
>> >> Yours,
>> >> Christian
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On 6/21/11 10:17 PM, Eric Schulte wrote:
>> >>> Unfortunately org-mode properties only allow a single entry for any
>> >>> given key, so you can only specify one variable using properties.
>> >>>
>> >>> However the following workaround does exist.
>> >>>
>> >>> *** alternative
>> >>>       :PROPERTIES:
>> >>>       :var:      vars=variables
>> >>>       :END:
>> >>>
>> >>> #+tblname: variables
>> >>> | var1 | 1 |
>> >>> | var2 | 2 |
>> >>>
>> >>> #+begin_src python
>> >>>     print vars[0][1]
>> >>>     print vars[1][1]
>> >>> #+end_src
>> >>>
>> >>> Best -- Eric
>> >>>
>> >>> Darlan Cavalcante Moreira<address@hidden>   writes:
>> >>>
>> >>>> I'm using org-babel to automate a few tasks and I'd like to define a few
>> >>>> variables that are common to several code blocks as sub-tree properties.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> It works when I have only one variable, where I can use
>> >>>> * Heading
>> >>>>     :PROPERTY:
>> >>>>     :var: variable1="value1"
>> >>>>     :END:
>> >>>>     #+begin_src python :results output
>> >>>>       print variable1
>> >>>>     #+end_src
>> >>>>
>> >>>>     #+results:
>> >>>>     : value1
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Is it possible to set multiples variables in this way?
>> >>>> I tried things like
>> >>>> :PROPERTY:
>> >>>> :var: variable1="value1" variable2="value2"
>> >>>> :END:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> :PROPERTY:
>> >>>> :var: variable1="value1",variable2="value2"
>> >>>> :END:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> :PROPERTY:
>> >>>> :variable1: "value1"
>> >>>> :variable2: "value2"
>> >>>> :END:
>> >>>> but none of them worked.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> --
>> >>>> Darlan Cavalcante
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> 
>> 

-- 
Eric Schulte
http://cs.unm.edu/~eschulte/