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adaada2012spark-2014

Describing a String type in Ada


I have a type similar to:

type ID is new String (1 .. 7);
-- Example: 123-456

How can I specify that format in code, either with Ada or SPARK?

I was thinking about Static_Predicate, but the condition that the string must start with 3 positive integers followed by a dash followed by another set of 3 positive integers can't be described with a Static_Predicate expression.


Solution

  • You have to use a Dynamic_Predicate for this:

    type ID is new String (1 .. 7)
      with Dynamic_Predicate => (for all I in ID'Range =>
                                   (case I is
                                       when 1 .. 3 | 5 .. 7 => ID (I) in '0' .. '9',
                                       when 4               => ID (I) in '-'));
    

    I'm using this quite a bit myself, but I mostly make the types subtypes of String instead of actual new types.