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MergeBranches

Expert

Module: FoundationLite

Chooses the first non-Nil object, or reports an error if there is no such object.

Name Type Description
Input value
 inConditionalObject1 <T>? First conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject2 <T>? Second conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject3 <T>? Third conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject4 <T>? Fourth conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject5 <T>? Fifth conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject6 <T>? Sixth conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject7 <T>? Seventh conditional input object
Input value
 inConditionalObject8 <T>? Eighth conditional input object
Output value
 outObject <T> First not-Nil input object

The type of this filter is defined using the type variable T which represents any valid type. Read more.

Description

The operation collects a number of conditional objects and passes the existing input values onto the outObject output. The filter assumes that at least one of the input values exists; otherwise an error with appropriate description occurs.

The operation is similar to the MergeConditionals filter, yet it computes the proper (non-conditional) object.

Hints

  • Also consider the coalescing operator (??) in Formula Blocks.
  • This filter creates a full copy of one of the input objects. Thus, if you need the highest possible speed, use this filter only with primitive types. An alternative is to use Variant Step macrofilters which are fast and elegant.

Examples
inConditionalObject1 = Nil
inConditionalObject2 = Nil
inConditionalObject3 = "Mike"
inConditionalObject4 = "Alice"
inConditionalObject5 = Nil
inConditionalObject6 = "Joanne"
inConditionalObject7 = Nil
inConditionalObject8 = Nil
 outObject = "Mike"
inConditionalObject1 = Nil
inConditionalObject2 = Nil
inConditionalObject3 = Nil
inConditionalObject4 = Nil
inConditionalObject5 = Nil
inConditionalObject6 = Nil
inConditionalObject7 = Nil
inConditionalObject8 = Nil
 Error occurs.

Errors

This filter can throw an exception to report error. Read how to deal with errors in Error Handling.

List of possible exceptions:

Error type Description
DomainError All of the conditional objects on input are Nil in MergeBranches.

Complexity Level

This filter is available on Expert Complexity Level.

See Also

  • MergeIntoArray – Creates an array from all the non-Nil input elements.