continue equivalent on macro language (for loop control)

[Carnë Draug]

Hi everyone,

is there any equivalent to 'continue' in a for loop in the macro
language? I'm inside a foor loop and want to skip to the next value in
the loop if a certain condition is not meet. Here's a bit of code
example

// get list of files and options

for (i = 0; i < lengthOf(file_list); i++) {
  // check if file exists before opening. Skip if it's no longer there
  if(File.exists(file_list[i]) {
    file.open(file_list[i]);
  } else {
    print ("File disappeared. Skipping");
    continue;
  }
  // Do very smart image analysis here
}

I tried continue and it doesn't work. "next" also doesn't. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Carnë Draug

[lechristophe]

Hi,

Hi Carnë,

Why don't you put the "smart analysis" part inside the if(File.exist)
condition, just after opening the file ? So it will not be done for non
existing images and the outputn will be the same ? Or maybe I missed
something.

Christophe

2011/3/15 Carnë Draug <[hidden email]>

> Hi everyone,
>
> is there any equivalent to 'continue' in a for loop in the macro
> language? I'm inside a foor loop and want to skip to the next value in
> the loop if a certain condition is not meet. Here's a bit of code
> example
>
> // get list of files and options
>
> for (i = 0; i < lengthOf(file_list); i++) {
>  // check if file exists before opening. Skip if it's no longer there
>   if(File.exists(file_list[i]) {
>     file.open(file_list[i]);
>   } else {
>     print ("File disappeared. Skipping");
>     continue;
>   }
>   // Do very smart image analysis here
> }
>
> I tried continue and it doesn't work. "next" also doesn't. Any help
> would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Carnë Draug
>

[Carnë Draug]

Hi Christophe,

it's just to avoid nesting code even more. Since the code is already
in another loop and there will be more if and loops in the analysis
part, if that could be avoided great. I'm more of a perl programmer so
I like my code clean and easy to read (hahahaha!)

But from your answer I'm guessing there's no way to do it, just as
there's no equivalent to the break statement. Can this mail maybe
count as a feature request?

Thanks anyway,
Carnë

2011/3/15 Christophe Leterrier <[hidden email]>:

> Hi,
> Hi Carnë,
> Why don't you put the "smart analysis" part inside the if(File.exist)
> condition, just after opening the file ? So it will not be done for non
> existing images and the outputn will be the same ? Or maybe I missed
> something.
> Christophe
>
> 2011/3/15 Carnë Draug <[hidden email]>
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> is there any equivalent to 'continue' in a for loop in the macro
>> language? I'm inside a foor loop and want to skip to the next value in
>> the loop if a certain condition is not meet. Here's a bit of code
>> example
>>
>> // get list of files and options
>>
>> for (i = 0; i < lengthOf(file_list); i++) {
>>  // check if file exists before opening. Skip if it's no longer there
>>   if(File.exists(file_list[i]) {
>>     file.open(file_list[i]);
>>   } else {
>>     print ("File disappeared. Skipping");
>>     continue;
>>   }
>>   // Do very smart image analysis here
>> }
>>
>> I tried continue and it doesn't work. "next" also doesn't. Any help
>> would be appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Carnë Draug
>
>

[Gluender-4]

Carnë,

did you consider using functions to make your (smart) code more structured?

>Hi Christophe,
>
>it's just to avoid nesting code even more. Since the code is already
>in another loop and there will be more if and loops in the analysis
>part, if that could be avoided great. I'm more of a perl programmer so
>I like my code clean and easy to read (hahahaha!)
>
>But from your answer I'm guessing there's no way to do it, just as
>there's no equivalent to the break statement. Can this mail maybe
>count as a feature request?
>
>Thanks anyway,
>Carnë
>
>2011/3/15 Christophe Leterrier <[hidden email]>:
>>  Hi,
>>  Hi Carnë,
>>  Why don't you put the "smart analysis" part inside the if(File.exist)
>>  condition, just after opening the file ? So it will not be done for non
>>  existing images and the outputn will be the same ? Or maybe I missed
>>  something.
>>  Christophe
>>
>>  2011/3/15 Carnë Draug <[hidden email]>
>>>
>>>  Hi everyone,
>>>
>>>  is there any equivalent to 'continue' in a for loop in the macro
>>>  language? I'm inside a foor loop and want to skip to the next value in
>>>  the loop if a certain condition is not meet. Here's a bit of code
>>>  example
>>>
>>>  // get list of files and options
>>>
>>>  for (i = 0; i < lengthOf(file_list); i++) {
>>>   // check if file exists before opening. Skip if it's no longer there
>>>    if(File.exists(file_list[i]) {
>>>      file.open(file_list[i]);
>>>    } else {
>>>      print ("File disappeared. Skipping");
>>>      continue;
>>>    }
>>>    // Do very smart image analysis here
>>>  }
>>>
>>>  I tried continue and it doesn't work. "next" also doesn't. Any help
>>>  would be appreciated.
>>>
>>>  Thanks in advance,
>  >> Carnë Draug

Best
--

                   Herbie

          ------------------------
          <http://www.gluender.de>

[Albert Cardona-2]

2011/3/15 Carnë Draug <[hidden email]>:

> Hi everyone,
>
> is there any equivalent to 'continue' in a for loop in the macro
> language? I'm inside a foor loop and want to skip to the next value in
> the loop if a certain condition is not meet. Here's a bit of code
> example
>
> // get list of files and options
>
> for (i = 0; i < lengthOf(file_list); i++) {
>  // check if file exists before opening. Skip if it's no longer there
>   if(File.exists(file_list[i]) {
>     file.open(file_list[i]);
>   } else {
>     print ("File disappeared. Skipping");
>     continue;
>   }
>   // Do very smart image analysis here
> }
>
> I tried continue and it doesn't work. "next" also doesn't. Any help
> would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Carnë Draug

Carnë,

Macro recording and macros in general are great for specific tasks
that can be applied to individual images, and are suitable for batch
processing. For complex programs I'd go for a language that makes
shuffling data around easy. For example python.

Here is a tutorial on using python with Fiji, an ImageJ distribution
packed with many libraries and plugins:

  http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~acardona/fiji-tutorial/

Hope that helps.

Albert

--
http://albert.rierol.net

[Carnë Draug]

On 16 March 2011 11:48, Gluender <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Carnë,
>
> did you consider using functions to make your (smart) code more structured?

I did. But then I can't return more than one value from a function. I
could return an array so I tried it despite the limited array
manipulation functions but I get an error saying that an array of
arrays is not possible. That said I did made a few functions (mostly
for array manipulation) but not nearly as much as I would like to. I'm
trying to make the code the easy to read since I'm not writing it for
myself, but for people in the lab who don't know programming and I
don't want to scare them away even more from looking at code.


On 16 March 2011 12:15, Albert Cardona <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Macro recording and macros in general are great for specific tasks
> that can be applied to individual images, and are suitable for batch
> processing. For complex programs I'd go for a language that makes
> shuffling data around easy. For example python.

Yeah, I feel like I'm using an axe for doing surgery. I was trying to
avoid it because I thought that macro would be easier for
non-programmers (the real users of it) to read and thus incentive them
into tweaking and maybe creating their own macros. But I've been
delaying learning Python for ages so this may be a good time. If only
there was perl support as well...


Still, thank you all for you comments.
Carnë

[Cammer, Michael]

I know it's messy and was absolutely forbidden when I took programming in college, but you can cheat by making global variables.
Cheers,
Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: ImageJ Interest Group [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Carnë Draug
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 9:47 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: continue equivalent on macro language (for loop control)

On 16 March 2011 11:48, Gluender <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Carnë,
>
> did you consider using functions to make your (smart) code more structured?

I did. But then I can't return more than one value from a function


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[Gluender-4]

Carnë,

perhaps you should get more acquainted with the IJ macro language:

macro "Test [t]" {
        a = newArray( 3 );
        testFunction( a );
        print( "Values: " + a[0] + " " + a[1] + " " + a[2] );
}

function testFunction( a ) {
        for ( i = 0; i < 3 ; i++ ) {
                a[i] = i;
        }
}

>On 16 March 2011 11:48, Gluender <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  > Carnë,
>>
>>  did you consider using functions to make your (smart) code more structured?
>
>I did. But then I can't return more than one value from a function. I
>could return an array so I tried it despite the limited array
>manipulation functions but I get an error saying that an array of
>arrays is not possible. That said I did made a few functions (mostly
>for array manipulation) but not nearly as much as I would like to. I'm
>trying to make the code the easy to read since I'm not writing it for
>myself, but for people in the lab who don't know programming and I
>don't want to scare them away even more from looking at code.
>
>
>On 16 March 2011 12:15, Albert Cardona <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>  Macro recording and macros in general are great for specific tasks
>>  that can be applied to individual images, and are suitable for batch
>>  processing. For complex programs I'd go for a language that makes
>>  shuffling data around easy. For example python.
>
>Yeah, I feel like I'm using an axe for doing surgery. I was trying to
>avoid it because I thought that macro would be easier for
>non-programmers (the real users of it) to read and thus incentive them
>into tweaking and maybe creating their own macros. But I've been
>delaying learning Python for ages so this may be a good time. If only
>there was perl support as well...
>
>
>Still, thank you all for you comments.
>Carnë

HTH
--

                   Herbie

          ------------------------
          <http://www.gluender.de>