Extension functions can be written as expressions

I’m working on some functions that can be useful for a concordance. Right now, that’s a function to give me the frequency of each word in a text.

I’ve successfully defined it as follows:

function_decl 'count-words', %{ f:histogram( f:split( f:normalize-space( f:keep( f:lower-case($1), ('lower') ) ), " " )/* ) }, { 'f' => FAB_NS }

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function_decl 'count-words', %{
  f:histogram(
    f:split(
      f:normalize-space(
        f:keep(
          f:lower-case($1),
          ('lower')
        )
      ),
      " "
    )/*
  )
}, {
  'f' => FAB_NS
}

This allows functions to be written in terms of previously defined functions, using all of the expressiveness of the Fabulator expression language.

For example, if I defined the XML prefix ‘c’ to correspond to the namespace in which the ‘count-words’ function is defined, then I could run the following expression:

let $i := c:count-words("This allows functions to be written in terms of previously defined functions, using all of the expressiveness of the Fabulator expression language.")

1

let $i := c:count-words("This allows functions to be written in terms of previously defined functions, using all of the expressiveness of the Fabulator expression language.")

And then ‘$i/of’ would equal 3 because the word ‘of’ appears three times.

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James

James is a software developer and self-published author. He received his B.S. in Math and Physics and his M.A. in English from Texas A&M University. After spending almost two decades in academia, he now works in the Washington, DC, start up world. View all posts by James

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