Re: Expand array into multiple elements per item?

["Benjamin R. Haskell" <zsh@benizi.com>]

On Tue, 13 Sep 2011, Peter Stephenson wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:15:50 -0400 "Benjamin R. Haskell" wrote:
>
>> Three questions:
>>
>> 1. How can I easily take:
>>      somelist=( 'a b' c 'd e' )
>>
>> and get back:
>>
>>      anotherlist=( -id 'a b' -id c -id 'd e' )
>
> anotherlist=({-id,${^somelist}})

Elegant.  I didn't think about brace expansion.  Thanks, this is what 
I'll use.


>> 2. ...relatedly, I'm confused by the following:
>>
>>      $ somelist=( 'a b' c 'd e' )
>> (i)  $ print -l - $^somelist(e:'reply=( -id $REPLY )':)
>>      zsh: no matches found: a b(e:reply=( -id $REPLY ):)
>> (ii) $ print -l - $^somelist(Ne:'reply=( -id $REPLY )':)
>>      (...nothing printed...)
>>      $
>>
>> Why does neither (i) nor (ii) work?
>
> The main problem is that globbing flags rely on globbing; if there's 
> no matching file, it doesn't work.

I think it's just the fact that the glob is expanded (and thus tested 
for the resultant filenames existing) before the qualifiers that trips 
me up, but yes: Don't use globs on non-files.  Makes sense.


>> 3. I thought I recalled a relatively recent addition to parameter 
>> expansion flags for just this use-case.  But I can't seem to find the 
>> flag in zsh-4.3.12 patchlevel 1.5346.  Still interested in the answer 
>> to the rest, regardless.
>
> You might be thinking of the globbing flag, P.  If you did have files,
> *(P:-id:) would have done what you wanted.  But you don't.  The actual
> effect is a bit bizarre (turning off nomatch):
>
> -id
> a b(P:-id:)
> -id
> c(P:-id:)
> -id
> d e(P:-id:)

Interesting.  Yes.  'P' was the flag I failed to find.

-- 
Thanks,
Ben