Operators and Expressions

Pikt provides the usual operators, and a few not so usual.  Most of them are borrowed from Perl, but several are unique to Pikt.

Here are the logical operators:

LOGICAL       DESCRIPTION

&&            logical AND
||            logical OR
!             logical NOT
( )           logical grouping

(Note that for config file #if-#endif preprocessing, you use the & and | set operators, not && or ||.)

The && and || operators use short-circuiting evaluation.

Except in some arithmetical or complex logical expressions, parentheses are often unnecessary.  You're sometimes better off avoiding them.

For example, you may do this (in a macro definition):

bypass_weekend
                if    ( =friday     &&   =evening )
                   || ( =saturday )
                   || ( =sunday     && ! =evening )
                        quit
                fi

but you may also, and with equivalent effect, do this:

bypass_weekend
                if =friday && =evening || =saturday || =sunday && ! =evening
                        quit
                fi

Some comments about formatting:

As we indicated in Format, Pikt is generally indifferent to script and config file layout, and you may lay out your config files and Pikt scripts in any style that pleases you.

You may do this, attempting to clarify the if logic with carefully crafted layout

        rule    // non-root uid 0's
                if    $uid eq "0"
                   && ! #nis
                   && (    $uname !~ "^(root|sundiag|sysdiag|smtp)$"
                        || (    $uname =~ "^(sundiag|sysdiag)$"
                             && $password ne "*"
                           )
                      )
                        output mail "User $uname has UID OF 0!"
                endif

but you may also do this

        rule    // non-root uid 0's
                if $uid eq "0" && ! #nis && ($uname !~ "^(root|sundiag|sysdiag|smtp)$" ||
                   ($uname =~ "^(sundiag|sysdiag)$" && $password ne "*"))
                        output mail "User $uname has UID OF 0!"
                endif

or (crazily) even this

        rule    // non-root uid 0's
                                if $uid eq "0"
                        && ! #nis
                && (
                $uname !~ "^(root|sundiag|sysdiag|smtp)$"
                        || (
                    $uname =~ "^(sundiag|sysdiag)$"    &&    $password ne "*"  
                )                      )
                        output mail "User $uname has UID OF 0!"
                endif

In each case, the formatting is irrelevant, and all three examples will have the exact same effect.

(Note that, any special formatting you apply in the config files don't apply in the installed script on the PIKT slave systems.  In the installed versions, standard formatting applies.  Here is how the above example would appear after PIKT installs it on the slave system:

        rule
                if $uid eq "0" && ! #nis && ($uname !~ "^(root|sundiag|sysdiag|smtp)$" ||
                   ($uname =~ "^(sundiag|sysdiag)$" && $password ne "*"))
                        output mail "User $uname has UID OF 0!"
                endif

that is, exactly as in the second (sensible) example above.  (Actually, the 'if' line above would appear all on a single line.  We have broken it up into two separate lines in this example for purposes of displaying it properly here--that is, not running off the right side of the web page.)

Here are the Pikt arithmetic operators:

ARITHMETIC    DESCRIPTION

+             add
-             subtract
*             multiply
/             divide
%             modulus
**            exponentiate
&             bit AND
|             bit OR
^             bit EXOR
~             bit COMP
<<            bit left shift
>>            bit right shift

==            equals
>             greater than
<             less than
>=            greater than or equal to
<=            less than or equal to
!=            not equal to
<>            not equal to
!>            not greater than
!<            not less than
!>=           not greater than or equal to
!<=           not less than or equal to

Note the absence of the auto-increment and auto-decrement operators.  Instead, you would use += and -= (see below).

The last four operators above are a bit unusual, and note that != and <> are interchangeable.

Here are the Pikt string operators:

STRING        DESCRIPTION

.             concatenate

eq            is identical to
ne            is not identical to
lt            precedes in dictionary order
gt            follows in dictionary order
le            precedes in dictionary order,
              or is identical to
ge            follows in dictionary order,
              or is identical to

Aside from concatenation, there are many more things one can do with strings using the built-in string functions.

Here are the Pikt assignment operators:

ASSIGNMENT    DESCRIPTION

=             assign to variable, used with all data
              types (string, number, filehandle)
+=            add and assign
-=            subtract and assign
*=            multiply and assign
/=            divide and assign
%=            modulus and assign
**=           exponentiate and assign
&=            bit AND and assign
|=            bit OR and assign
^=            bit EXOR and assign
<<=           bit left shift and assign
>>=           bit right shift and assign
.=            concatenate and assign

Finally, here are the Pikt file test operators:

FILE          DESCRIPTION

-e            exists
-z            is zero length
-f            is a regular file
-d            is a directory
-c            is a character special file
-b            is a block special file
-p            is a pipe
-l            is a symlink
-S            is a socket

For example, you could test for the existence of a file as in

        rule
                if ! -e $fil
                        =outputmail "$fil not found!"
                        next
                endif

(proc tests, similar in format to file tests, might be developed for some future PIKT version.)

These operators follow the usual associativity and precedence rules.

So, too, with how objects and operators combine to form expressions.  The usual rules apply (no real surprises here).

Refer to the Samples section for many more examples.

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