Difference in load() with () and other functions

a!localVariables() completely replaces load() and with().

interesting position...I'd be interested in how you'd implement a nested a!forEach() where the inner loop requires a value from each outer loop. Obviously one option would be to write a rule that passed the entire fv!item, from which you'd extract the outer value and all the inner values...but if you wanted to do this without such a helper rule, you could use a with() to define a local!variable that you could set (and re-set) for each outer loop and that is now made available to the inner loop.

Wait, are you saying that couldn't be done with a!localVariables()?  Why?

Wait, are you saying that couldn't be done with a!localVariables()?  Why?

Because you can't assign a value to a local!variable from within the scope of the a!forEach() - or, if you can, I'm not seeing how that's done. Here's what I've just experimented with. First is what works using a with():

a!localVariables(
  local!myNestedArray: {
    {
      {record: 1, attributes: {"A","B","C"}},
      {record: 2, attributes: {"D","E","F"}}
    },
  },
  a!forEach(
    items: local!myNestedArray,
    expression: with(
      local!currentItem: concat("SJB/", fv!item.record),
      a!forEach(
        items: fv!item.attributes,
        expression: {
          local!currentItem,
          fv!item
        }
      )
    )
  )
)

...and secondly here's what I've tried to do just using local!variables (which I can't get to work):

a!localVariables(
  local!myNestedArray: {
    {
      {record: 1, attributes: {"A","B","C"}},
      {record: 2, attributes: {"D","E","F"}}
    },
  },
  local!currentItem: null,
  a!forEach(
    items: local!myNestedArray,
    expression: {
      local!currentItem: fv!item.record,
      a!forEach(
        items: fv!item.attributes,
        expression: {
          local!currentItem,
          fv!item
        }
      )
    }
  )
)

Arguably (and I might take that position for more a more sophisticated transformation in the inner loop) you'd have a helper rule. And maybe that's best practice, but I'm always (!) suspicious when someone is definitive in their reply! ;-)

Found your problem... you replaced with(), with nothing, instead of a!localVariables()...
Stewart Burchell

should be:

a!localVariables(
  local!myNestedArray: {
    {
      {record: 1, attributes: {"A","B","C"}},
      {record: 2, attributes: {"D","E","F"}}
    },
  },
  local!currentItem: null,
  a!forEach(
    items: local!myNestedArray,
    expression: a!localVariables(
      local!currentItem: fv!item.record,
      a!forEach(
        items: fv!item.attributes,
        expression: {
          local!currentItem,
          fv!item
        }
      )
    )
  )
)