Creating Columns in a Loop

sophiaw

Hi,

So in my script, I have a loop that creates columns, it works great, but I want to improve it a bit. I have data that comes in the form (number)|(character)|(number)|(character) etc. So I have alternating data types and I would like to print them in their normal form. Right now, the columns are in numeric form, so I can't see any of the character data. But if I change it to character format, I lose the numeric data structure. So I have this loop:

For(j = 1, j <= nitems(pinList), j++,

          dt2 << New Column(pinList, Numeric, Continuous, Format("Best",12));

          dt2 << New Column(pinList[j++], Character, Nominal);

);

Where I define all the column names in my pinList array. That works, except for the fact that it duplicates the entry at pinList (which in this case, is actually not a bad thing). the real problem comes in when I try to run another loop after it that parses that data which is delimited by a '|' and put it in the new columns.

For (i = 1, i <= nrows(dt2), i++,

          one_test_result_list = words(column(dt2,"Test_Result"), "|");

         

          For (k = 1, k <= nitems(one_test_result_list), k++,

                    Column(dt2, pinList) = one_test_result_list;

          );

);

The last line runs once, and then breaks because the next entry in pinList has a "2" after it because when the columns were created, it duplicated every name. I'm not sure how to get this to work. I can define all the names I want in the pinList array but I want alternating column types of numeric and character.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

robot

Hi sophiaw,

If I understand your script correctly, I think the problem arises by your use of j++ within the body of your loop, because j++ will only iterate j after the loop has completed an iteration.  I can think of a couple of ways around this.  One method is to replace j++ with j+1, and then add a separate line for j++.  The other method is to add an If() statement to create separate commands for even and odd j.

Please see Examples 1 and 2 for an example of how i++ operates within the body of a loop.

I hope this helps.

Names Default To Here( 1 );

dt2 = New Table( "dt2", Add Rows( 20 ) );

pinList = {"A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F"};

For( j = 1, j <= N Items( pinList ), j++,

      dt2 << New Column( pinList[j], Numeric, Continuous, Format( "Best", 12 ) );

      dt2 << New Column( pinList[j + 1], Character, Nominal ); // Create column for j+1.

      j++; // Then iterate by j=j+1.

);

For( j = 1, j <= N Items( pinList ), j++,

      If( Modulo( j, 2 ) == 1,

            dt2 << New Column( pinList[j], Numeric, Continuous, Format( "Best", 12 ) ), // Execute for odd j.

            dt2 << New Column( pinList[j], Character, Nominal ) // Execute for even j.

      )

);

// Example 1.

For( i = 1, i <= 10, i++,

      Print( i );

      Print( i++ );

);

// Example 2.

For( i = 1, i <= 10, i++,

      Print( i );

      Print( i + 1 );

      i++;

);