Grails elvis operator

[andyrh3]

Hello

I am new to Grails and Groovy. I am currently walking through one of the tutorials which introduces you to grails plugins. Searchable plugin is the one used as an example but on installing the plugin sucessfully I noticed that when using the search tool to search my classes and leaving the input field blank it gives me a <EOF> found error.

Not a problem as I then proceeded to adapt the search method within my class controller from:

def search = {
flash.message = "Search results for: ${params.q}"
def resultsMap = Race.search(params.q, params)
render(view:'list', model:[
raceInstanceList:resultsMap.results,
raceInstanceTotal:Race.countHits(params.q)
])
}

to:

def search = {
def qStr = params.q != "" ? params.q : "*"
flash.message = "Search results for: $qStr"
def resultsMap = Race.search(qStr, params)
render(view:'list', model:[
raceInstanceList:resultsMap.results,
raceInstanceTotal:Race.countHits(qStr)
])
}

This works fine but I was hoping to use a more elegant solution. Can anyone help with the following points:

1. Can I improve the elvis operator? I tried the below instead of the above but it did not work. I thought that it would implicitly apply the params.q to my qStr variable if the condition was true?

def qStr = params.q != "" ?: "*"

2. How can I perform a regExpression and check for all non-expected entries. I.e. If I enter a space into the field this also causes an error.

Look forward to some Guru to give me advise. Please be gentle as I'm a beginner. No wacky solutions please :-)

Kind regards

Andyrh3

[pledbrook]

This works fine but I was hoping to use a more elegant solution. Can anyone help with the following points:

1. Can I improve the elvis operator? I tried the below instead of the above but it did not work. I thought that it would implicitly apply the params.q to my qStr variable if the condition was true?

def qStr = params.q != "" ?: "*"

This is the typical code you would use:

def qStr = params.q ?: "*"

If params.q is a non-empty string (and hence also not null), then it's value will be used. Otherwise the "*" string will be assigned to qStr instead.

2. How can I perform a regExpression and check for all non-expected entries. I.e. If I enter a space into the field this also causes an error.

I'm not quite sure what you're after, but you can do something like:

if (qStr =~ /\S+/) {
    // Everything is OK
}

If you want more information than that you will have to be more explicit as to what you're trying to do. Are you after a particular regular expression for example?