Unknown syntax

[jakeone]

Hi

I'm working with CakePHP and I've encountered some syntax I don't recognise - {n} as in...

$this->set('locations', $this->Location->generateList(null, 'locationName ASC', null, '{n}.Location.id', '{n}.Location.locationName'));

What do those {n} mean? Are they even PHP syntax or maybe they're specific to CakePHP?

Thanks.

[NogDog]

Probably some sort of place-holder that Cake uses, later using some replace function on it.

[mikell]

"{n}" is specific to Cake.

If you look at the definition of the generateList() function, which is a function
of the model_php5 class ( http://api.cakephp.org/model__php5_8php-source.html )
you'll notice these two lines:

 $keys = Set::extract($result, $keyPath);
 $vals = Set::extract($result, $valuePath);

The Set class ( http://api.cakephp.org/set_8php-source.html ) is the class that actually interprets {n}, in its extract function. From what I can tell, {n} is just being used to alter the extract function's behavior.