Dictionary Columns

Dictionaries provide a mechanism for setting the attributes of each entry individually. The column set up command is:

#cols column1_def, column2_def, ...

One of the column definitions must be "text" (the entry text) and the others are attributes, of the form:

attribute:name

The entries following the #cols command have to have the number of columns specified in the #cols command:

attribute:namecolumn1_value, column2_value, ...

Both column definitions and dictionary entries are comma separated. If commas occur within the column values, the column value should be double-quoted.

For example:

#wordlist Events

#cols text, feature:year, feature:location

Sydney Olympics, 2000, Sydney

South Africa World Cup, 2010, South Africa

This capability complements the global setting of attributes via commands of the form #attribute:name value.

Empty columns in entries are filled by values set in global attribute commands, if available.

Examples

[To be found with the example Dictionaries distributed with Sintelix]

/*

#EXAMPLE

Business as Usual.

Business to Business.

Business to Consumer.

policeman & policemen.

polices will not match.

Dog

#EXAMPLE END

*/

​

#wordlist Demo6-Columns

// define a two columns: text and a string feature "abbrev"

#cols text, feature:abbrev

#feature:abbrev nil

Business as Usual, BAU

Business to Business, B2B

Business to Consumer, B2C

Dog,

​

// you may customise the order setting #cols also clears the previous column layout

#cols feature:abbrev, text

// now the second column is the entry text

BAU, Business as Usual

B2B, Business to Business

B2C, Business to Consumer

,Dog

​

// Combining with other attributes and globals; #cols overrides any global feature (for example, code)

#cols text, feature:code:integer, generalise:plural

fireman , 17, true

firefighter , 18, true

policeman , 19, true

police , 19, false

Giving the results:

The links are annotated twice - once with the columns in one order and a second time with the columns in reverse order.