Shift-Return within an If(True, "", "") breaks into full If…Then…Else

General
1

While I wait for the Standardised formatting to appear on Down/Up arrows, I have been pressing Shift-Return to format my current line.

While this works most of the time, if I press Shift-Return within an If(True, “”, “”) statement on a line, it breaks my line into a full If…Then…Else statement with my line changed and duplicated, and Undo doesn’t undo the damage!

Is this only me? Shall I add a Feedback report for something so trivial?

2

I complained about this myself in Feedback. They said it was “expected” behavior so they would not accept it as a bug.

In any case, it is clearly undesirable for people such as myself who often use one line If/Then statement and expect it to stay as one line. I find that it makes my code clearer and easier to read.

I thought that their response to me was bizarre. But there is a sliver of hope IMO. I think that the whole Standardised Formatting functionality is in flux with the engineers at Xojo. I think/hope they are trying to design a system that allows a user to select as a preference to have, or have not, automatic application of Standardized Formatting.

I am guessing that they did not want to deal with this “little thing” while the whole system is in flux.

1 Like
3

The case was closed:
#79547 - If True Then A = B Else B = C: this single line will be converted to multi-line with Shift-Return

4

So it seems Shift-Return performs two functions which sometimes clash when ambiguous. Not helpful.

I don’t want to have to remember to ensure nothing is selected, move my mouse away to the top of the screen and click the Standardise button every time I want Standard format.

5

It may not be a “bug” but I think the way to approach this would be to create a feature request for an option to change or disable this behavior.

6

The fact that the undo command doesn’t undo the conversion (as David mentions) is still a bug.

Out of curiosity, would you expect something else to happen, or just nothing? If the latter, then it’s better to have a thing happening than nothing at all, even if it’s not your intention (just don’t press shift-return).

1 Like
7

For example, if I have entered the following code and want to standardise the formatting:

var myString As String="Test"
myString = if(myString="Test","New Value",myString)

If I place my cursor anywhere on the first line and press Shift-Return I get this (fixes case and pads spaces):
Var myString As String = "Test"
Whereas if I place my cursor anywhere on the second line and press Shift-Return I get this (assumes I want a multi-line if-then-else, rather than just fixing case and padding spaces):

If myString = "Test" Then
  myString = "New Value"
Else
  myString = myString
End If

when I really wanted (achieved by copy and pasting the second line):
myString = If(myString = "Test", "New Value", myString)

2 Likes
8

This usage of If is part of the Xojo language and should never be converted to

If
...
Then
... 
Else
... 
End if

Language / If

If(condition, <result when expression is true>, <result when expression is false>)

1 Like
9

Oh, I see now. It’s true I never use code standardisation.
What I’m seeing as a problem is that shift+return does two distinct things (code standardisation and expansion). Logically, they should be two different shortcuts.

2 Likes