functional programming with map()

Wed Feb 27 21:45:59 EST 2002

I wish to thank everyone that contributed to this thread. I have
been overwhelmed at the response, but this discussion has been
extremely helpful. Thank you

As a result, I attached a dozen lines of code to my XML database
management module so that I can now generate sophistocated reports
from an HTML template with embedded string formatting operators (%) .
These refer to an embedded dictionary at the end of the HTML file
something like this:

<html>
  <head><title>Prism: Progress Note</title></head>
<body>
<table width="100%%" cellpadding="5"><tr>
<td width="70" valign="top"><p>%(date)s</p></td>
<td>
<p><strong>Assessment and Plan:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>%(ga)s wk newborn infant %(order)s, birthweight %(bw)s kg,
yesterday %(wt)s kg,<br />
chronologic age %(age)s, post-conceptual age %(pca)s wk. <br />
</li>
<li>Temperature control: %(heat)s
</li>
<li>Respiratory support: %(resp)s <br />
</li>
<li>Nutrition and Fluids:<br /> %(fen)s <br />
</li>
%(pList)s
</ol><br /><br />
<br /><br /><br />_______________________________________<br />
Donnal Walter, M.D., Attending Neonatologist
</td>
</tr></table>
<!-- <vars>{
  'date':  self.today.GetDate(),
  'ga':    self.birthGA.Get(),
  'order': self.birthorder.Get(),
  'bw':    self.birthweight.Get(),
  'wt':    self.weight.Get(),
  'age':   self.age.Get(),
  'pca':   self.pca.Get(),
  'heat':  self.warmer.Get(),
  'resp':  self.respiratory.Get(),
  'fen':   (
            IF(self.formula.Get(),
               ('____ cc/kg/day enteral of ' + 
                self.formula.Get() + '<br />'),
                '') +
            '____ cc/kg/day total fluids, ____ kcal/kg/day' + 
            '<br /> ____ cc/kg/hr urine output;' +
            IF(self.lytes.Get(),
               '<br />Na____, K____, Cl____, CO____,',
               '')
           ),
  'pList': CONCAT([('<li>' + x.label.Get() +
             IF(len(x.meds),
               ('<ul>' +
                 CONCAT([('<li>' + y.label.Get() + 
                   IF(y.dose.Get(),
                     (', ' + 
                       y.dose.Get() + ' ' +
                       y.units.Get() + ' (' +
                       y.scaled.Get() + ' ' +
                       y.units.Get() + '/kg) ' +
                       y.route.Get() + ' every ' +
                       y.interval.Get() + ' hr; '),
                     '') +
                   '</li>'
                 ) for y in x.meds]) +
               '</ul>' ),
               '') +
             '</li>'
           ) for x in self.problems])
}</vars>
-->
</body></html>

Note especially the loops in the definition for pList (problem list).
The code that interprets this template is simply:

    def Generate(self, filename):
        """filename = template file"""
        IF = lambda a,b,c:(a and [b] or [c])[0]
        CONCAT = lambda z:reduce((lambda x,y: x+y), z, ' ')
        try:                                 # try this
            io = open(filename, 'r')         #   open read only
            t = io.read()                    #   read full text
            io.close()                       #   close file
            i = string.find(t, '<vars>')     #   start of vars
            j = string.find(t, '</vars>')    #   end of vars
            s = t[:i] + t[j+7:]              #   remove "vars"
            v = eval(t[i+6:j])               #   make dictionary
            return s % v                     #   return string
        except KeyError:                     # unless key error
            return 'Key error in template'   #   then warning

    def Write(self, template, output):
        io = open(output, 'w')
        io.write(self.Generate(template))
        io.close()

Thanks again,
Donnal Walter