<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<page name="manual_expressions">

<title>Expressions</title>

<box title="Value constructors expressions" link="val">

<p>
The page <local href="manual_types_patterns"/> presents
the different kind of values: scalar constant (integers, characters, atoms),
structured values (pairs, records, sequences, XML elements),
and functional values (abstractions). Value themselves are
expressions, and the value constructors for structured values
operate also on expressions.
</p>

<p>
This page presents the other kinds of expressions in the language.
</p>

</box>

<box title="Pattern matching" link="match">

<p>
A fundamental operation in CDuce is pattern matching:
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
match %%e%% with
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pn%% -> %%en%%
]]></sample>

<p>
The first vertical bar <code>|</code> can be omitted.
The semantics is to try to match the result of the evaluation
of <code>%%e%%</code> successively with each pattern
<code>%%pi%%</code>. The first matching pattern triggers
the corresponding expression in the right hand side,
which can use the variables bound by the pattern.
Note that a first match policy, as for the disjunction patterns.
</p>

<p>
The static type system ensures that the pattern matching is exhaustive:
the type computed for <code>%%e%%</code> must be
a subtype of the union of the types accepted by all the patterns.
</p>

<p>
Local definition is a lighter notation for a pattern matching with
a single branch:
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
let %%p%% = %%e1%% in %%e2%%
]]></sample>

<p>
is equivalent to:
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
match %%e1%% with %%p%% -> %%e2%%
]]></sample>

<p>
Note that the pattern <code>%%p%%</code> need not be a simple
capture variable.
</p>

</box>

<box title="Functions" link="fun_exp">

<section title="Abstraction">

<p>
The general form for a function expression is:
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
fun %%f%% (%%t1%% -> %%s1%%; %%...%%; %%tn%% -> %%sn%%)
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pm%% -> %%em%%
]]></sample>

<p>
The first line is the <em>interface</em> of the function,
and the remaining is the <em>body</em>, which is
a form of pattern matching (the first vertical bar <code>|</code> can
thus be omitted).
</p>

<p>
The identifier <code>%%f%%</code> is optional; it is useful
to define a recursive function (the body of the function can
use this identifier to refer to the function itself).
</p>

<p>
The interface of the function specifies some constraints on the
behavior of the function. Namely, when the function
receive an argument of type, say <code>%%ti%%</code>, the result
(if any) must be of type <code>%%si%%</code>. The type system
ensures this property by type-checking the body once for each constraint.
</p>

<p>
The function operate by pattern-matching the argument (which is a
value) exactly as for standard pattern matching. Actually, it
is always possible to add a line <code> x -> match x with </code>
between the interface and the body without changing the semantics.
</p>

<p>
When there is a single constraint in the interface, there is
an alternative notation, which is lighter for several arguments
(that is, when the argument is a tuple):

</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
fun %%f%% (%%p1%% : %%t1%%, %%...%%, %%pn : tn%%) : %%s%% = %%e%%
]]></sample>
<p>
(note the blank spaces around the colons which are mandatory when the
pattern is a variable 
<footnote>
The reason why the blank spaces are mandatory with variables is that the XML
recommendation allows colons to occur in variables ("names" in XML terminology:
see section on <local href="namespaces"/>), so the blanks disambiguate
the variables. Actually only the blank on the right hand side is necessary:
CDuce accepts <code>fun %%f%% (%%x1%% :%%t1%%, %%...%%, %%xn :tn%%):%%s%% =
%%e%%</code>, as well (see also <a
href="tutorial_getting_started.html#bnote1">this paragraph</a> on
<code>let</code> declarations in the tutorial).</footnote>) which is strictly
equivalent to:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
fun %%f%% ((%%t1%%,%%...%%,%%tn%%) -> %%s%%) (%%p1%%,%%...%%,%%pn%%) -> %%e%%
]]></sample>

<p>
It is also possible to define currified functions with this syntax:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
fun %%f%% (%%p1%% : %%t1%%, %%...%%, %%pn : tn%%) (%%q1%% : %%s1%%, %%...%%, %%qm : sm%%) %%...%% : %%s%% = %%e%%
]]></sample>
<p>
which is strictly
equivalent to:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
fun %%f%% ((%%t1%%,%%...%%,%%tn%%) -> (%%s1%%,%%...%%,%%sm%%) -> %%...%% -> %%s%%) 
 (%%p1%%,%%...%%,%%pn%%) -> 
  fun ((%%s1%%,%%...%%,%%sm%%) -> %%...%% -> %%s%%)
   (%%q1%%,%%...%%,%%qm%%) -> 
     %%...%%
     %%e%%
]]></sample>

<p>
The standard notation for local binding a function is:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
let %%f%% = fun %%g%% (...) ... in ...
]]></sample>
<p>
Here, <code>%%f%%</code> is the "external" name for the function,
and <code>%%g%%</code> is the "internal" name (used when the function
needs to call itself recursively, for instance). When the two names coincide
(or when you don't need an internal name), there are lighter
notations:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
let fun %%f%% (...) ... in ...
let %%f%% (...) ... in ...
]]></sample>

</section>

<section title="Application">

<p>
The only way
to use a function is ultimately to apply it to an argument. The notation
is simply a juxtaposition of the function and its argument.
E.g.:

</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
(fun f (x : Int) : Int = x + 1) 10
]]></sample>

<p>evaluates to 11. The static type system ensures that
applications cannot fail.</p>

<p>
Note that even if there is no functional "pattern" in CDuce,
it is possible to use in a pattern a type constraint
with a functional type, as in:
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
fun (Any -> Int)
 | f & (Int -> Int) -> f 5 
 | x & Int -> x
 | _ -> 0
]]></sample>


</section>

</box>

<box title="Exceptions" link="exn">

<p>
The following construction raises an exception:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
raise %%e%%
]]></sample>
<p>
The result of the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code> is the
<em>argument</em> of the exception. 
</p>

<p>
It is possible to catch an exception with an exception handler:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
try %%e%% with
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pn%% -> %%en%%
]]></sample>
<p>
Whenever the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code> raises an exception,
the handler tries to match the argument of the exception with
the patterns (following a first-match policy). If no pattern matches,
the exception is propagated.
</p>

<p> Note that contrary to ML, there is no exception name: the only
information carried by the exception is its argument. Consequently,
it is the responsibility of the programmer to put enough information
in the argument to recognize the correct exceptions. Note also
that a branch <code>(`A,x) -> %%e%%</code> in an exception
handler gives no static information about the capture variable
<code>x</code> (its type is <code>Any</code>). 
<b>Note:</b> 
it is possible that the support for exceptions will change in the future
to match ML-like named exceptions.
</p>

</box>

<box title="Record operators" link="record_exp">

<p>
There are three kinds of operators on records:
</p>
<ul>
 <li>
   Field projection: 
   <sample>%%e%%.%%l%%</sample> 
   where
   <code>%%l%%</code> is the name of a label which must be
   present in the result of the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code>.
   This construction is equivalent to: <code>match %%e%% with
   { %%l%% = x } -> x</code>. It is necessary to put
   whitespace between the expression and the dot
   when the expression is an identifier.
 </li>
 <li>
   Record concatenation:  
   <sample>%%e1%% + %%e2%%</sample>
   The two expressions must evaluate to records, which
   are merged together. If both have a field with the same
   name, the one on the right have precedence. Note
   that the operator <code>+</code> is overloaded: it also operates
   on integers.
 </li>
 <li>
   Field suppression:  
   <sample>%%e%% \ %%l%%</sample>
   deletes the field <code>%%l%%</code> in the record resulting from 
   the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code> whenever it is present.
 </li>
</ul>

</box>

<box title="Arithmetic operators" link="arith">

<p>
Binary arithmetic operators on integers:
<code>+,-,*,div,mod</code>. Note that <code>/</code> is used
for projection and <em>not</em> for division.
</p>

<p>
The operator <code>+,-</code> and <code>*</code> are typed
using simple interval arithmetic. The operators <code>div</code>
and <code>mod</code> produce a warning at compile type if
the type of there second argument include the integer <code>0</code>.
</p>

<p>
The type <code>Float</code> represents floating point numbers.
An operator <code>float_of: String -> Float</code> is provided
to create values of this type. Currently, no other operator
are provided for this type (but you can use OCaml functions
to work on floats).
</p>

</box>

<box title="Generic comparisons, if-then-else" link="comp">

<p>
Binary comparison operators (returns booleans):
<code><![CDATA[=,<<,<=,>>,>=]]></code>. Note that <code>&lt;</code>
is used for XML elements and is this not available for comparison.
</p>

<p>
The semantics of the comparison is not specified when
the values contain functions. Otherwise, the comparison
gives a total ordering on CDuce values. The result type
for all the comparison operators is <code>Bool</code>, except
for equality when the arguments are known statically to be different
(their types are disjoint); in this case, the result type
is the singleton <code>`false</code>.
</p>

<p>
The if-then-else construction is standard:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
if %%e1%% then %%e2%% else %%e3%%
]]></sample>
<p>
and is equivalent to:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
match %%e1%% with `true -> %%e2%% | `false -> %%e3%%
]]></sample>
<p>
Note that the else-clause is mandatory.
</p>

<p>
The infix operators <code>||</code> and <code>&amp;&amp;</code>
denote respectively the logical or and the logical and. The prefix
operator <code>not</code> denotes the logical negation.
</p>


</box>

<box title="Upward coercions" link="upward">

<p>
It is possible to "forget" that an expression has a precise type,
and give it a super-type:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
(%%e%% : %%t%%)
]]></sample>
<p>
The type of this expression if <code>%%t%%</code>, and
<code>%%e%%</code> must provably have this type (it can have a
subtype). This "upward coercion" can be combined with the local let
binding:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
let %%p%% : %%t%% = %%e%% in %%...%%
]]></sample>
<p>which is equivalent to:</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
let %%p%% = (%%e%% : %%t%%) in %%...%%
]]></sample>
<p>
Note that the upward coercion allows earlier detection of type errors,
better localization in the program, and more informative messages.
</p>
<p>
CDuce also have a dynamic type-check construction:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
(%%e%% :? %%t%%)
let %%p%% :? %%t%% = %%e%% in %%...%%
]]></sample>
<p>
If the value resulting from the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code>
does not have type <code>%%t%%</code>, an exception
whose argument (of type <code>Latin1</code>) explains the reason
of the mismatch is raised.
</p>
</box>



<box title="Sequences" link="seq_exp">

<p>
The concatenation operator is written <code>@</code>. There
is also a <code>flatten</code> operator which takes a sequence of 
sequences and returns their concatenation.
</p>

<p>
There are two built-in constructions to iterate over a sequence.
Both have a very precise typing which takes into account
the position of elements in the input sequence as given by
its static type. The <code>map</code> construction is:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
map %%e%% with
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pn%% -> %%en%%
]]></sample>
<p>
Note the syntactic similarity with pattern matching. Actually,
<code>map</code> is a pattern matching form,
where the branches are applied in turn to each element of the
input sequence (the result of the evaluation of <code>%%e%%</code>).
The semantics is to return a sequence of the same length, where
each element in the input sequence is replaced by the result of
the matching branch.
</p>

<p>
Contrary to <code>map</code>, the <code>transform</code> construction
can return a sequence of a different length. This is achieved
by letting each branch return a sequence instead of a single
element. The syntax is:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
transform %%e%% with
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pn%% -> %%en%%
]]></sample>
<p>
There is always an implicit default branch <code>_ -> []</code>
at then end of <code>transform</code>, which means that
unmatched elements of the input sequence are simply discarded.
</p>

<p>
Note that <code>map</code> can be simulated by <code>transform</code>
by replacing each expression <code>%%ei%%</code> with
<code>[ %%ei%% ]</code>.
</p>

<p>
Conversely, <code>transform</code> can be simulated by
<code>map</code> by using the <code>flatten</code> operator.
Indeed, we can rewrite <code>transform %%e%% with %%...%%</code>
as <code>flatten (map %%e%% with %%...%% | _ -> [])</code>.
</p>
</box>

<box title="XML-specific constructions" link="xml_exp">

<section title="Loading XML documents">
<p>
The <code>load_xml: Latin1 -> AnyXml</code> built-in function parses 
an XML document on the local
file system. The argument is the filename.
The result type <code>AnyXml</code> is defined as:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
type AnyXml = <(Atom) (Record)>[ (AnyXml|Char)* ]
]]></sample>

<p>
If the support for netclient or curl is available, it is also
possible to fetch an XML file from an URL, e.g.:
<code>load_xml "http://..."</code>. A special scheme <code>string:</code>
is always supported: the string following the scheme is parsed as it is.
</p>

<p>
There is also a <code>load_html: Latin1 -> [Any*]</code> built-in
function to parse in a
permissive way HTML documents.
</p>

</section>

<section title="Pretty-printing XML documents">
<p>
Two built-in functions can be used to produce a string from an XML document:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
print_xml: Any -> Latin1
print_xml_utf8: Any -> String
]]></sample>
<p>
They fail if the argument is not an XML document (this isn't checked
statically). The first operator
 <code>print_xml</code> prepares the document to be dumped to
a ISO-8859-1 encoded XML file: Unicode characters outside Latin1
are escaped accordingly, and the operator fails if the document
contains tag or attribute names which cannot be represented 
in ISO-8859-1.   The second operator <code>print_xml_utf8</code>
always succeed but produces a string suitable for being dumped
in an UTF-8 encoded file. See the variants of the
<code>dump_to_file</code> operator
in the section on <a href="#io">Input/output</a>.
</p>
<p>
In both cases, the resulting string does <em>not</em> contain
the XML prefix "&lt;?xml ...>".
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
dump_xml: Any -> []
dump_xml_utf8: Any -> []
]]></sample>
<p>
These functions behave has <code>print_xml</code> and 
<code>print_xml_utf8</code> but send the result to the standard
output.
</p>
</section>

<section title="Projection">

<p>
The projection takes a sequence of XML elements and returns
the concatenation of all their children with a given type.
The syntax is:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
%%e%%/%%t%%
]]></sample>
<p>
which is equivalent to:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
transform %%e%% with <_>[ (x::%%t%% | _)* ] -> x
]]></sample>
<p>
For instance, the expression
<code><![CDATA[
[ <a>[ <x>"A" <y>"B" ] <b>[ <y>"C" <x>"D"] ] / <x>_
]]></code>
evaluates to
<code><![CDATA[
 [ <x>"A" <x>"D" ]
]]></code>.
</p>

<p>
There is another form of projection to extract attributes:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
%%e%%/@%%l%%
]]></sample>
<p>
which is equivalent to:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
transform %%e%% with <_ l=l>_ -> l
]]></sample>
<p>
The dot notation can also be used to extract the value of the
attribute for one XML element:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
# <a x=3>[].x;;
- : 3 = 3
]]></sample>

</section>

<section title="Iteration over XML trees">

<p>
Another XML-specific construction is <code>xtransform</code>
which is a generalization of <code>transform</code> to XML trees:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
xtransform %%e%% with
 | %%p1%% -> %%e1%%
%%...%%
 | %%pn%% -> %%en%%
]]></sample>
<p>
Here, when an XML elements in the input sequence is not matched
by a pattern, the element is copied except that the transformation
is applied recursively to its content. Elements in the input sequence
which are not matched and are not XML elements are copied verbatim.
</p>

</section>

</box>


<box title="Unicode Strings" link="ustr">
<p>
Strings are nothing but sequences of characters, but in view of their
importance when dealing with XML we introduced the standard double
quote notation.  So <code>[ 'F' 'r' 'a' 'n' 'ç' 'e' ]</code> can be
written as <code>"Françe"</code>. In double quote all the
<i>values</i> of type <code>Char</code> can be used: so besides Unicode chars we
can also double-quote codepoint-defined characters (<code>\x%%h%%;
\%%d%%; </code> where <code>%%h%%</code> and <code>%%d%%</code> are
hexadecimal and decimal integers respectively), and backslash-escaped
characters (<code>\t</code> tab, <code>\n</code> newline,
<code>\r</code> return, <code>\\</code> backslash). Instead we
cannot use character expressions that are not values. For instance, for
characters there is the built-in function <code>char_of_int : Int
-> Char</code> which returns the character corresponding to the given
Unicode codepoint (or raises an exception for a non-existent
codepoint), and this can only be used with the regular sequence
notation, thus <code>"Françe"</code>, <code>"Fran"@[(char_of_int
231)]@"e"</code>, and <code>"Fran\231;e"</code> are equivalent expressions.
</p>
</box>


<box title="Converting to and from string" link="str">

<section title="Pretty-printing a value">

<p>
The built-in function <code>string_of: Any -> Latin1</code> 
converts any value to a string,
using the same pretty-printing function as the CDuce interpreter itself.
</p>

</section>

<section title="Creating and decomposing atoms from strings">

<p>
 The built-in functions  <code>split_atom: Atom ->
 (String,String)</code> and <code>make_atom: (String,String) ->
 Atom</code> converts between atoms and pair of strings
 (namespace,local name).
</p>

</section>

<section title="Creating integers from strings">

<p>
The operator <code>int_of</code> converts a string to an integer.  The string
is read in decimal (by default) or in hexadecimal (if it begins with
<code>0x</code> or <code>0X</code>), octal (if it begins with <code>0o</code>
or <code>0O</code>), or binary (if it begins with <code>0b</code> or
<code>0B</code>). It fails if the string is not a decimal representation of an
integer or if in the case of hexadecimal, octal, and binary representation the integer cannot be contained in 64 bits. There is a type-checking warning when the argument cannot be proved
to be of type <code>[ '-'? '0'--'9'+ ] | ['-'? 'O'('b'|'B') '0'--'1'+ ] |
['-'?  'O'('o'|'O') '0'--'7'+ ] | ['-'? 'O'('x'|'X')
('0'--'9'|'a'--'f'|'A'--'F')+] </code>.
</p>
</section>

<section title="Creating characters from integers and characters from integers">
<p>
Besides the built-in function <code>string_of: Any -> Latin1</code>, it is
also possible to create characters, hence strings, from their codepoints:
either by enclosing their code within a backslash (<code>\x</code> for
hexadecimal code) and a semicolon, or by applying the built-in function
<code>char_of_int : Int -> Char</code>. The reverse function
<code>int_of_char : Char -> Int</code> is available as well.
</p>
</section>

</box>

<box title="Input-output" link="io">

<section title="Displaying a string">

<p>
To print a string to standard output, you can use one of the built-in
function <code>print: Latin1 -> []</code> or
<code>print_utf8: String -> []</code>.
</p>

</section>

<section title="Loading files">

<p>
There are two built-in functions available to load a file into a CDuce string:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
load_file: Latin1 -> Latin1
load_file_utf8: Latin1 -> String
]]></sample>
<p>
The first one loads an ISO-8859-1 encoded file,
whereas the second
one loads a UTF-8 encoded file.
</p>
<p>
If the support for netclient or curl is available, it is also
possible to fetch a file from an URL, e.g.:
<code>load_file "http://..."</code>.
</p>

</section>

<section title="Dumping to files">

<p>
There are two operators available to dump a CDuce string to a file:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
dump_to_file %%e1%% %%e2%%
dump_to_file_utf8 %%e1%% %%e2%%
]]></sample>
<p>
The first one creates an ISO-8859-1 encoded file (it fails
when the CDuce string contains non Latin1 characters), whereas the second
one creates a UTF-8 encoded file.  In both cases, the first
argument is the filename and the second one is the string to dump.
</p>

</section>

</box>

<box title="System" link="sys">

<section title="Running external commands">
<p>
The predefined function <code>system</code> executes
an external command (passed to <code>/bin/sh</code>)
and returns its standard output and standard error
channels and its exit code. The type for <code>system</code>
is:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
Latin1 -> { stdout = Latin1; stderr = Latin1; 
             status = (`exited,Int) | (`stopped,Int) | (`signaled,Int) |}
]]></sample>

</section>

<section title="Terminating the program">
<p>
The predefined function <code>exit: 0--255 -> Empty</code> terminates
the current process.  The argument is the exit code.
</p>
</section>

<section title="Accessing the environment">
<p>
The built-in function <code>getenv: Latin1 -> Latin1</code>
queries the system environment for an environment variable.
If the argument does not refer to an existing variable,
the function raises the exception <code>`Not_found</code>.
</p>
</section>

<section title="Command line arguments">
<p>
The built-in function <code>argv: [] -> [ String* ]</code> returns
the sequence of command line arguments given to the current program.
</p>
</section>
</box>

<box title="Namespaces" link="ns">

<p>
It is possible in expression position to define a local
prefix-namespace binding or to set a local default namespace.
</p>

<sample><![CDATA[
namespace %%p%% = "%%...%%" in %%e%%
namespace "%%...%%" in %%e%%
]]></sample>

<p>
See <local href="namespaces"/> for more details.
</p>

</box>

<box title="Imperative features" link="imp">

<p>
The construction <code>ref %%T%% %%e%%</code> is used to build a
<em>reference</em> initialized with the result of the expression
<code>%%e%%</code>; later, the reference can receive any value
of type <code>%%T%%</code>.  The reference is actually a value of type
<code>{ get = [] -> T ; set = T -> [] }</code>. 
</p>

<p>
Two syntactic sugar constructions are provided to facilitate
the use of references:
</p>

<sample>
!%%e%%        ===  %%e%%.get []           {{ Dereferencing }}
%%e1%% := %%e2%%  ===  %%e1%%.set %%e2%%          {{ Assignment }}
</sample>

<p>
An expression of type <code>[]</code> is often considered
as a command and followed by another expression. The sequencing
operator gives a syntax for that:
</p>

<sample>
%%e1%% ; %%e2%%   ===  let [] = %%e1%% in %%e2%%   {{Sequencing}}
</sample>



</box>



<box title="Queries" link="sel">

<p>
CDuce is endowed with a <code>select_from_where</code> syntax to perform some SQL-like queries. The general form of select expressions is
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
select %%e%% from
   %%p1%% in %%e1%%,
   %%p2%% in %%e2%%,
       :
   %%pn%% in %%en%%
where %%c%%
]]></sample>
<p>
where <code>%%e%%</code> is an expression, <code>%%c%%</code>
a boolean expression, the <code>%%pi%%</code>'s are patterns, and the
<code>%%ei%%</code>'s are sequence expressions.
</p>
<p>
It works exactly as a standard SQL select expression, with the difference that
relations (that is sequences of tuples) after the <code>in</code> keyword can
here be generic sequences, and before the <code>in</code> generic patterns
instead of just capture variables can be used. So the result is the sequence of
all values obtained by calculating <code>%%e%%</code> in the sequence of
environments in which the free variables of <code>%%e%%</code> are bounded by
iteratively matching each pattern <code>%%pi%%</code> with every element of the
sequence <code>%%ei%%</code>, provided that the condition <code>%%c%%</code> is
satisfied.  In other words, the first element of the result is obtained by
calculating <code>%%e%%</code> in the environment obtained by matching
<code>%%p1%%</code> against the first element of <code>%%e1%%</code>,
<code>%%p2%%</code> against the first element of <code>%%e2%%</code>, ... , and
<code>%%pn%%</code> against the first element of <code>%%en%%</code>; the
second element of the result is obtained by calculating <code>%%e%%</code> in
the environment obtained by matching <code>%%p1%%</code> against the first
element of <code>%%e1%%</code>, <code>%%p2%%</code> against the first element of
<code>%%e2%%</code>, ..., and <code>%%pn%%</code> against the <i>second</i>
element of <code>%%en%%</code>, ... ; and so on.
</p>
<p>
Formally, the semantics of the select expression above is defined as:
</p>
<sample><![CDATA[
transform %%e1%% with %%p1%% ->
   transform %%e2%% with %%p2%% ->
         ...
       transform %%en%% with %%pn%% ->
          if %%c%% then  [%%e%%] else []
]]>
</sample>
<p>
A <code>select</code> expression works like a set of nested
<code>transform</code> expressions. The advantage of using select rather than
transform is that queries are automatically optimized by applying classical
logic SQL optimization techniques (this automatic optimization can be
disabled).
</p>
<p>
The built-in optimizer is free to move boolean conditions around to
 evaluate them as soon as possible. A warning is issued if a
 condition does not depend on any of the variables captured by the
 patterns.
</p>
</box>
</page>
