Re: What is the name of the | symbol?

[Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk>]

Matt Jaffe <matt.jaffe@gmail.com> writes:

> In using it in a named association array aggregate, its semantic are
> "and" --- e.g., some_1D_array := (1 | 3 | 7 => 5, others => 10) sets
> elements 1 and 3 and 7 to the value 5.  In a case statement, its
> semantics are "or" --- e.g. when 1 | 3 | 7 => ...  any of the values
> 1, 3, or 7 for the case expression will select the ... code for
> execution.  Is there a single name for that symbol (the | ) that seems
> to have different semantics depending on context?

How about reading it like this (read with a fixed-width font):

a := (               1   |   3    |   7    =>    5, others => 10  )
    if the index is one or three or seven then five   else    ten fi

Similar syntax appeared in Algol 68.  | is frequently used for
"alternatives" -- it's just a question of what's being referred to.
Here, it's all the alternative indexes that map to a specific value.

-- 
Ben.