Field Object Behavior in Parser Versions

In version 5.0 of the Chameleon parser, the behavior of some of the field object methods and properties is different from their behavior in earlier versions of the parser. The following table lists these differences.

Method/Property	Parser Versions 3.211.245 - 4.5	Parser Versions 5.0 and Up
clear()	No differences.	No differences.
count_of_subfield()	It is possible to set the subfield count on a sub-subfield without getting an error. Also: input data of \|something\| returns 0, but input data of \|something^\| returns 1.	This returns the number of subfields for field and subfield levels. For sub-subfield levels, this method throws an IndexError. For input data of \|something\| and \|something^\|, 1 is returned.
count_of_repeat()	It is possible to set the repeat count on a subfield or sub-subfield, which affects the output from count_of_repeat(). However, in most cases, repeats in subfields and sub-subfields are ignored.	This method returns >= 1 at the field level; it returns 1 at any deeper level (since subfields and sub-subfields have no repeats).
is_null()	Returns True only if the current object has empty data and has no children.	At the subfield and field level, this method returns True only if the current object has no subfields. At the sub-subfield level, it returns True only if the value is zero sized.
subfield()	It is always possible to return a subfield relative to the current level, since set_count_of_subfield works at any level.	In this parser, it is not possible to call the method at the sub-subfield level; it will raise an IndexError.
repeat_field()	Returns the field object, depending on the value set in the set_count_of_repeats method.	At the field level, this method returns the correctly indexed repeat field. At the sub and sub-subfield level, this method returns itself if the RepeatIndex is zero; otherwise, it raises an IndexError (since these levels have no repeats).
value	No differences.	No differences.
set_count_of_repeat()	Always works at any level.	In the 5.0 parser, this method will raise an IndexError if used at the sub or sub-subfield level, or if the parameter is greater than 1.
set_count_of_subfield()	Always works at any level.	In the 5.0 parser, this method will raise an IndexError if used at the sub-subfield level.

iNTERFACEWARE™ Inc.

Field Object Behavior in Parser Versions