Any

Any is an arbitrary data type. It is a common supertype of all types: an Any type value can be a string, a number, unit, a structure, a list, a tuple, etc.

as, exactAs

If the particular type is known in advance, you can cast the value to that type using macros:

• as[T]: returns a value of type T; if the value does not match the type, returns unit.
• exactAs[T]: returns a value of type T; if the value does not match the type, fails.

Examples:

• The value is of a base type:

  func f1(a: Any) = a.as[Int]
  f1(10).value() + 1                      # Returns 11
  f1("Waves").isDefined()                 # Returns false
  

• The value is a tuple:

  func f2(a: Any) = a.exactAs[(Int,String)]
  f2((11,"Ride"))._2 + " the Waves!"      # Returns "Ride the Waves!"
  f2(true)                                # Fails
  

• The value is a list:

  func f3(a: Any) = a.exactAs[List[Any]]
  f3([12,"Ride"])[0].exactAs[Int]         # Returns 12
  f3(88)                                  # Fails
  

match ... case

If the particular type of the Any value is not known in advance, you can spot it using the match-case operator.

Example:

func findString(a: Any) = {
  match a {
    case a: String => a
    case a: List[Any] =>
      match a[0] {
        case b: String => b
        case _ => throw("Data is not a string")
      }
    case _ => throw("Data is not a string")
  }
}