Re: constructor calls and named parameters

On 21 Apr 2004, at 17:41, John Stump wrote:

> Hello, I am having some confusion about constructors and named
> parameters.
>
> It seems that named parameter passing is supported in
> constructor calls. For instance, I can do this:
>
> class A {
>   x = 0; y = 0; z = 0
> }
>
> s = new A(x:1, y:2, z:3)
>
> assert s.x == 1
> assert s.y == 2
> assert s.z == 3
>
> However, if I have my own constructor like this:
>
> class AA {
>   x = 0; y = 0; z = 0
>
>   AA() {
>     println "hello from AA ctor!"
>   }
> }

BTW you positive that AA() is a no-arg constructor?

>
> s = new AA(x:1, y:2, z:3)
>
> assert s.x == 1
> assert s.y == 2
> assert s.z == 3
>
> the assertions fail, because all the properties are still 0. It
> seems that the named parameters were ignored.
>
> 1) Should groovy let me new AA with named parameters when there
> was a defined ctor?

It should - this seems like a bug. Though the current implementation of 
named parameters is quite simple. Named parameters typically make a Map 
and that is used to try construct you type, or the default no-arg 
constructor is used and then the named parameters are set as bean 
properties.

So

class Foo {
     Foo(Map args) { ... }
}

or
class Foo {
     Foo() { ... }

     Integer x
     String y
}

etc should be usable via

new Foo(x:123, y:"hey")

> 2) Should groovy make the assignments from the Map before
> invoking the constructor?
>
> 3) If I need to define a ctor, but also want to use the named
> parameter syntax, do I need to create a ctor that takes a Map?

Yes - or zero arg constructor. One day we hope to have full metadata 
available so that we can know the names of each parameter in a 
method/constructor and so do the unpicking of the Map automatically.

> If so, is there an easy way to apply the Map contents to set my
> properties?

There's a helper method if you need it...

     InvokerHelper.setProperties(bean, map)

(which is in the org.codehaus.groovy.runtime package).

When we support optional modules (class augmentations) we should 
probably have a 'setProperties' method available inside Groovy scripts.

James
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