Using eval

#1 Try throwing a 'return' in there to return the value, like this:
$a=eval("return $b.count();");
echo($a);
echo(eval("return $b.count();"));

#2 I always put the assignment into the eval, as in:

eval( "$a = $b.count();" );

#3 Sweet, I also figured out an alternative:
eval("%tmp=$b.count();");
thanks!

#4 Am I missing somthing here or isn't

%tmp = $b.count();

The exact same thing?

#5 @Gonzo - It is... I assume he was talking hypothetically. I will sometimes name a couple of lists Card0Pile, Card1Pile, etc., and then I use eval to get counts, as in eval( "%count = Card" @ %i @ "Pile.getCount();");

@gamer - If this isn't a hypothetical, definately do what Gonzo says... it's much faster.

#6 Eval( "%count = Card" @ %i @ "Pile.getCount();");

=

%count = Card[%i]Pile.getCount();

Should work just fine I believe

#7 Yes I was talking hypothetically to show how eval works.
eval("$b.count()") will give you nothing but eval("%tmp=$b.count()"); gives you the right number.

#8 Most of the times I see people use eval, it is really not neccesary. Not neccesary means wasting time, yours and Torque's. For an idea of a good use of evals capabilities I rigged up these three functions to demonstrate how I made a very compact admin feature for servers that didn't require writing a ton of code. Now if you have ever seen admin code, you know it can take a lot of functions to make it possible to ban players or change missions. Using eval can solve a lot of hassles in this situation.

function funkshunBuilder(%what, %who, %how, %arg)
{
	eval(%what @ %who @ %how @ "(\"" @ %arg @ "\");");
}

Using a function similar to this, I could send remote commands to a server st passing a few key parameters. Instead of having some complicated if/else or case/switch statements do the work, which would also need to be added to if ever expanded, I use the above to assemble my functions for me and I just send it preformatted data. For example, if I sent the following data...

%what = "Admin";
%who = "Player";
%how = "Ban";
%arg = "Frank";

The resulting eval would be the same as...

AdminPlayerBan("Frank");

which would call the following function...

function AdminPlayerBan(%player)
{
	ban(%player);
}

Maybe a ban was too rough, if I instead sent...

%what = "Admin";
%who = "Player";
%how = "Kick";
%arg = "Frank";

The resulting eval would be the same as...

AdminPlayerKick("Frank");

which would call the following function...

function AdminPlayerKick(%player)
{
	kick(%player);
}

You could also use something like...

%what = "Admin";
%who = "Server";
%how = "MissionChange";
%arg = "server/missions/myMission.mis";

resulting in...

AdminServerMissionChange("server/missions/myMission.mis");

which would call the following function...

function AdminServerMissionChange(%mission)
{
	load(%mission);
}

The possibilities are endless. You could pass more arguements to more complex functions if you needed to, but the above can work a lot of things without needing to expand other code to activate them.


EDIT: One more example to demonstrate it's flexibility...


%what = "Game";
%who = "Reset";
%how = "";
%arg = "30";

leaving out the "how" simply results in a shorter function...

GameReset("30");

but the arguement still gets passed which would call the following function...

function GameReset(%seconds)
{
	schedule(1000 * %seconds, 0 "resetGame");
}