anyvalue

anyvalue is the boxed value type used by formatting APIs and other generic interfaces.

var v : anyvalue = 123
var s : str = v.AsStr("")

Arrays of anyvalue are written with normal array literal syntax:

PrintLn("{}: {}", ["answer", 42])

Stored Kinds

anyvalue can hold:

Kind	Common source values
null	v.SetNull()
integer	int, uint, fixed-width integers
boolean	bool
pointer	pointer and pointer values
floating point	float, float32, float64
text	str, strview, cstring

Dynamic strings stored in an anyvalue keep the correct reference-counted string lifetime.

Methods

The builtin anyvalue type exposes convenience methods backed by the RTL AnyVal... functions.

Method	Meaning
IsNull() / SetNull()	test or set the null value
IsNumber()	true for integer or floating point values
IsInt() / IsSInt() / IsUint()	test integer kind
AsInt(def) / AsUint(def)	convert integer or float, otherwise return default
IsBool() / AsBool(def)	test/read boolean
IsPointer() / AsPointer(def)	test/read pointer
IsFloat() / IsFloat32() / IsFloat64()	test floating point kind
AsFloat(def) / AsFloat32(def) / AsFloat64(def)	convert float or integer
IsText()	true for str, strview, or cstring values
IsStr()	true only for dynamic str
AsStr(def)	return a dynamic string
AsText(def)	return a text view-style value

Example:

function ToLabel(v : anyvalue) -> str:
    if v.IsNull():
        return "<null>"
    elif v.IsText():
        return v.AsStr("")
    elif v.IsNumber():
        return Format("{}", [v])
    else:
        return "<value>"
    endif
endfunc

The As... methods use their default argument when the stored kind cannot be converted by the runtime helper.