Smalltalk syntax can be a little confusing coming from other languages. Here I’ll show some comparisions between Python string operations and Smalltalk.
Python strings use the slice notation where you can place up to three colon-separated values for the start, stop, and step. Python strings are 0-indexed and the stop argument is one past the final element that you want.
s = 'abcdefg'
s[1:] # bcdefg
s[:2] # ab
s[1:6] # bcdef
s[1:-1] # bcdef
The slice notation in Python is compact and versatile to be used when getting the beginning, middle, or end of a string. Smalltalk achieves the same results using a number of different messages that can be a little confusing when you first get into it.
s := 'abcdefg'
"Leave off only the first character"
s allButFirst "bcdefg"
"allButFirst with an argument to leave off that many characters"
s allButFirst: 2 "cdefg"
"There are also the first and last messages that produce the same result
as s[1:] or s[:5]. Remember though that Smalltalk's indexing is 1-based
and inclusive"
s first: 2 "ab"
s last: 2 "fg"
"Get the middle of the string"
s copyFrom: 2 to: 6 "bcdef"
"Smalltalk indexing doesn't have the same trick with negative indexes,
instead you need to calculate the size"
s copyFrom: 2 to: s size - 1
Python has extensive string formatting using either the .format() method of string or using f-strings.
Pharo has a similar format: message that can be used for inpterpolating other objects in strings.
Each of these objects must have a asString method for this to work.
"pass in a collection where values are indexed by number (like Array or OrderedCollection)"
'ab {1} ef {2}' format: {'cd'. 'gh'}. "ab cd ef gh"
"pass in a collection where values are indexed by name"
'ab {one} ef {two}' format:
(Dictionary with: #one -> 'cd' with: #two -> 'gh'). "ab cd ef gh"
Unlike python there is no format mini-language. Which means that if you want to format things
like numbers in a specific way you need to do that before passing the object to format:.
Numbers have a basic message printString that will use the default settings. For very large or
very small numbers it will print in scientific notation.
There isn’t a general number formatter like printf in C/C++, instead there are messages for each
type of formatting you want on a number. printPaddedWith: aCharacter to: aNumber is used to
perform left-side padding with a character of your choice. Normally you would choose zero to
mimic the printf behaviour but you can choose any character you like.
123 printPaddedWith: $0 to: 8 "'00000123'"
123 printPaddedWith: $, to: 8 "',,,,,123'"
123.31 printPaddedWith: $0 to: 6 "'000123.31'"
123.31 printPaddedWith: $0 to: 1 "'123.31'"
printShowingDecimalPlaces: placesDesired is for controlling the number of decimal places.
123.31 printShowingDecimalPlaces: 12 "'123.310000000000'"
To combine these with the format: message you could do something like the following to make
a dynamic array of the values you want:
'{1}' format: { 1.123 printShowingDecimalPlaces: 12. }
There isn’t a scientific formatter though, instead the default is to print a number in decimal format when it’s small, and switch to the scientific format as it gets bigger. I found this a little annoying as I wanted to print numbers in a consistent scientific format no matter their size.
There is a package called NumberPrinter that has more
versatile printing options, including scientific printing. For example, the default settings with
FloatPrinterScientificFormat would convert 123.123 to 1.23123e2. But you can change that with
different messages to the number printer.
rws := ReadWriteStream with: String new.
fp := FloatPrinterScientificFormat new.
fp exponentDigitCount: 2.
fp exponentChar: $E.
fp print: 123.123 on: rws.
rws contents "1.23123E02"
Sadly this is a bit more verbose than python: '{:.5E}'.format(0.09112346) = '9.11235E-02'