Statements

ThingsDB has support for the following statements:

Statement	Description
return	Return a value and optionally define a deep value.
if..else	Execute a code block when a condition evaluates to `true`. Optionally, execute a different code block when the conditions evaluates to `false`.
for..in	Loop over an iterable object. The block of code inside the loop will be executed once for every item.
break	Break out a loop.
continue	Jump over one iteration in a loop.

return

Every ThingsDB query will have a return value. If no return statement is used, then the return value will be the value of the last statement. It is therefore not required to use the return statement unless you want to return with a value before the end of the code is reached. The return statement also accepts a second and third argument to specify a different deep level and optional flags together with return.

Example usage of the return statement:

for (i in range(5)) {
    if (i == 3) {
        return `Number {i}`;
    };
};

Return value in JSON format

"Number 3"

Example return with an explicit deep value:

return {
    nested: {
        text: 'this is a thing with a second level'
    }
}, 2;  // use *deep* 2 to return 2 levels deep

Return value in JSON format

{
    "nested": {
        "text": "this is a thing with a second level"
    }
}

return flags

Flag	Description
NO_IDS	Return things without ID’s, even when the things are stored.

Example use of the NO_IDS flags:

.my_thing = {
    text: "this is an example without #"
};

// Return "my_thing", 1 level deep, without ID (#)
return .my_thing, 1, NO_IDS;

Return value in JSON format

{
    "text": "this is an example without #"
}

if..else

Use the if and optional else statement to executes a block of code if a specified condition is true. If the condition is false, another block of code can be executed.

Example if..else:

size = 123;  // Just some example value

if (size < 10) {
    return 'small';
} else if (size < 100) {
    return 'medium';
} else {
    return 'large';
};

Return value in JSON format

"large"

for..in

The for..in statement can be used to loop over an iterable value like a thing, list or thing.

Loop over a list:

arr = [];

// Note that the `index` is optional
for (item, index in ['laptop', 'bike', 'camera']) {
    arr.push(`Item '{item}' at index {index}`);
};

arr;

Return value in JSON format

[
    "Item 'laptop' at index 0",
    "Item 'bike' at index 1",
    "Item 'camera' at index 2"
]

Loop over a thing:

store = {
    books: 80,
    bikes: 5,
    laptops: 3
};
arr = [];

// Note that the `value` is optional
for (key, value in store) {
    arr.push(`Number of '{key}' in stock: {value}`);
};

arr;  // The order might be different

Example return value in JSON format

[
    "Number of 'books' in stock: 80",
    "Number of 'bikes' in stock: 5",
    "Number of 'laptops' in stock: 3"
]

break

Within a for..in statement, the break statement can be used to break out of the loop.

For example, the code below will break out the loop when i is equal to 3.

arr = [];

for (i in range(5)) {
    if (i == 3) {
        break;
    };
    arr.push(`Number {i}`);
};

arr;

Return value in JSON format

[
    "Number 0",
    "Number 1",
    "Number 2"
]

continue

Within a for..in statement, the continue statement can be used to jump over one iteration in the loop.

For example, the code below will jump over one iteration when i is equal to 3.

arr = [];

for (i in range(5)) {
    if (i == 3) {
        continue;
    };
    arr.push(`Number {i}`);
};

arr;

Return value in JSON format

[
    "Number 0",
    "Number 1",
    "Number 2",
    "Number 4"
]