Sets
Keywords: doc-html

Next: Files Up: Values, Types, and Constants Previous: Tables Contents Index

#
Sets

Sets are very similar to tables. The principle difference is that they are simply a collection of indices; they don't yield any values. You declare tables using the following syntax:

> `set [` type `]`

where, as with `table`s, type is one or more scalar types (or records), separated by commas.

You initialize sets listing their elements in braces:

        global a = { 21/tcp, 23/tcp, 80/tcp, 443/tcp };

which implicitly types `a` as a `set[port]` and then initializes it to contain the given 4 `port` values.

For multiple indices, you enclose each set of indices in brackets:

        global b = { [21/tcp, "ftp"], [23/tcp, "telnet"], };

which implicitly `b` as `set[port, string]` and then initializes it to contain the given two elements. (As with tables, the comma after the last element is optional.)

As with tables, you can group together sets of indices:

        global c = { [21/tcp, "ftp"], [[80/tcp, 8000/tcp, 8080/tcp], "http"], };

initializes `c` to contain 4 elements.

Also as with tables, you can use the `&create_expire`, `&read_expire`, and `&write_expire` attributes to control the automatic expiration of elements in a set. Deficiency: However, the `&expire_func` attribute is not currently supported.

You can test for whether a particular member is in a set using the `in` operator, as with tables. You add elements using the `add` statement:

        add c[443/tcp, "https"];

and can remove them using the `delete` statement:

        add d[21/tcp, "ftp"];

Also, as with tables, you can assign to the entire set, which assigns a shallow copy.

Finally, as with tables, you can loop over all of the indices in a set using the `for` statement.

Next: Files Up: Values, Types, and Constants Previous: Tables Contents Index