Ant - String contains within an array of String - ant

Question

I am basically trying to do the following thing in Ant (v1.9.4):
I have a list of fixed string like {a,b,c,d} --> First how should I declare this in Ant?
Then I have an input parameter such as ${mystring} and I want to check if the variable value is in my list. Which means in this example, if the variable value is equals to a or b or c or d.
If so return true else false (or 0 and 1 something like that).
Is there a simple way to do that?
Thanks,
Thiago

Answer 1

Use ant property task to declare your stringlist.
Use ant contains condition to check whether list contains a specific item.
Something like :
<project>
<!-- your stringlist -->
<property name="csvprop" value="foo,bar,foobar"/>
<!-- fail if 'foobaz' is missing -->
<fail message="foobaz not in List => [${csvprop}]">
<condition>
<not>
<contains string="${csvprop}" substring="foobaz"/>
</not>
</condition>
</fail>
</project>
Or wrap it in a macrodef for resuse :
<project>
<!-- your stringlist -->
<property name="csvprop" value="foo,bar,foobar"/>
<!-- create macrodef -->
<macrodef name="listcontains">
<attribute name="list"/>
<attribute name="item"/>
<sequential>
<fail message="#{item} not in List => [#{list}]">
<condition>
<not>
<contains string="${csvprop}" substring="foobaz"/>
</not>
</condition>
</fail>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
<!-- use macrodef -->
<listcontains item="foobaz" list="${csvprop}"/>
</project>
-- EDIT --
From ant manual condition :
If the condition holds true, the property value is set to true by default; otherwise, the property is not set. You can set the value to something other than the default by specifying the value attribute.
So simply use a condition to create a property that is either true or not set, f.e. combined with the new if/unless feature introduced with Ant 1.9.1 :
<project
xmlns:if="ant:if"
xmlns:unless="ant:unless"
>
<!-- your stringlist -->
<property name="csvprop" value="foo,bar,foobar"/>
<!-- create macrodef -->
<macrodef name="listcontains">
<attribute name="list"/>
<attribute name="item"/>
<sequential>
<condition property="itemfound">
<contains string="${csvprop}" substring="foobaz"/>
</condition>
<!-- echo as example only instead of
your real stuff -->
<echo if:true="${itemfound}">Item #{item} found => OK !!</echo>
<echo unless:true="${itemfound}">Warning => Item #{item} not found !!</echo>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
<!-- use macrodef -->
<listcontains item="foobaz" list="${csvprop}"/>
</project>
output :
[echo] Warning => Item foobaz not found !!
Note that you need the namespace declarations to activate the if/unless feature.