`<pack>`

<pack> is a special operation that allows multiple values to be stored in a dictionary variable. The values are subsequently accessed via dot notation.

Description

<pack> is an operation containing valid Macro Language code. Any values or variables that exist within <pack> are not within the scope of other operations outside of <pack>.

Syntax

<pack into_="[NAME_OF_DICTIONARY]" 
 [USER_DEFINED_VAR_1]="[VALUE_1]" ...
          [USER_DEFINED_VAR_N]="[VALUE_N]">
    [ARBITARY_BLOCK_CODE]
</pack>

Attributes

into_

Provide an arbitrary name for the "dictionary" into which the values defined in the opening tag will be placed.

value_n_attribute

<pack> accepts an arbitrary number of attributes that are used to define the values placed into the dictionary defined in the into_ attribute.

For example:

<pack into_="dictionary" attrvar1="1" attrvar2="2">

The above code defines two variables, attrvar1 and attrvar2 that currently hold values 1 and 2 respectively. Note that the attribute names are arbitrary, as are their values. The values are accessed with a dot syntax notation. See the example below for how to access these values.

Example

<table depth="1"/>
<pack into_="list" val1="bob">
  <willbe name="col" value="'{@list.val1}'"/>
</pack>