Loading structs from SLK files

It is possible to load (convert) an slk into code to be added to the map's script, specifically struct assigments. This can be really useful when a system uses structs to store data, since SLK is a table format it can save some work and make things easier to edit without the manual struct assigning.

The preprocessor to load an slk file is //! loaddata "path.slk". The file path argument follows exactly the same rules as the ones I already specified in import (including lookup folders)

Both the slk and the struct type to be loaded need to follow very specific rules.

The SLK

The SLK file requires to have an struct name at (row 1, column 1) Then the first row contains field names, the next rows contain a [key] and values for the names specified up there.

stname	this	is	just	an	example
1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12

In the example, the name of the struct type to be loaded is stname, the keys of the instances that will be loaded are 1 and 7, and the rest is information about fields and values.

The struct type

The struct type to be used (in the example, stname) requires a getFromKey static method that returns a value of the struct type.

getFromKey() would simply convert a key value and return an equivalent struct, this is because you often want data structs to be related to something else. (Most of the times the [something else] will be an object id.)

For this example, getFromKey would have to take an integer value

The struct type also requires to have the fields declared in the SLK file, the SLK is not forced to list all the fields of the struct type.

So if we have this struct definition:

struct stname
    integer this
    integer is
    integer just
    integer an
    integer example

    static stname array values

    static method getFromKey takes integer i returns thistype
        if (stname.values[i]==0) then
            set values[i]=stname.create()
        endif
     return stname.values[i]
    endmethod
    
endstruct

And we also load the SLK from the previous example, the loaded init code would be:

    set s=stname.getFromKey(1)
    set s.this=2
    set s.is=3
    set s.just=4
    set s.an=5
    set s.example=6
    set s=stname.getFromKey(7)
    set s.this=8
    set s.is=9
    set s.just=10
    set s.an=11
    set s.example=12

Notice that this code is then run after the struct and libraries initialization

For a more practical explanation check out the SLK demo included in the JassHelper distribution.

Last modified: 16 October 2024