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From: =?utf-8?Q?Michael_R=C3=BCegg?= <rueegg.michael@gmail.com>
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Subject: Named function arguments in Groovy
Message-Id: <057803BD-0849-4047-A0EC-E2BC751F63E1@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2016 08:50:22 +0100
To: users@groovy.apache.org
archived-at: Wed, 23 Nov 2016 07:50:34 -0000

Hi,

I have a DSL where I want to pass named arguments like follows:

def foo(String a, String b, String c, Closure d) {
}

foo(a=3D=E2=80=9Ca=E2=80=9D, c=3D=E2=80=9Cc=E2=80=9D, b=3D=E2=80=9Cb=E2=80=
=9D) {
}

I=E2=80=99m aware that named arguments are supported by receiving the =
arguments with a map:

def foo(Map<String, String> obj, Closure c) {
}

foo(a:"a", c:=E2=80=9Dc", b:=E2=80=9Db") {
}

The problem with this approach is that for a user of this DSL, it is not =
obvious which parameters are expected and what their names are (beside =
documenting it, but who is going to read that ;-)).=20

How can I achieve named function arguments with =E2=80=9Creal" syntax in =
Groovy? Is there an alternative to using maps for this?

By the way, I think it is kind of misleading for a beginner that the =
following compiles but does not pass the arguments in the intended =
order:

foo(a=3D"a", c=3D=E2=80=9Cc", b=3D=E2=80=9Cb") {
  // a =3D=3D a, b =3D=3D c, c=3D=3Db
}

Is this intended behaviour?

Thanks in advance,
Michael