Transforms

annotations of — Returns any annotations of an element in the system
annotations with — Returns all the annotations where the annotation class is the class supplied
any class — Returns classes in any namespace/package with a given name
arguments of — Returns the arguments of the methods in the set
arguments with — Returns all the arguments with the types in the set
base classes of — Returns the base classes of the classes in the set
calls from — Returns the set of all method calls found in a set of methods
calls to — Returns the set of all calls to methods in a set
cast — Converts a set of objects to a known type
catches in — Returns the exception catches in a method
catches of — Finds catches of an exception class
classes in — Returns the classes in a set of packages, or the inner classes within a set of classes
derived classes of — Returns the classes which are immediately derived from the classes in the set
fields in — Returns the fields in the classes in the set
fields with — Returns all the fields with the types in the set
methods in — Returns the methods in the classes in the set
methods with — Returns all the methods returning the types in the set
packages in (Java)/namespaces in (C#-CIL) — Returns the packages or namespaces nested in the packages or namespaces in the set
polymorphic — Returns the set of methods that map polymorphically to the input set
recursive — Recursively apply a transform, and possibly a secondary transform
recursive base classes of — Returns the base classes of the classes in the set, and the base classes of those classes, to the root of the inheritance hierarchy
recursive derived classes of — Returns the derived classes of the classes in the set, and the derived classes of those classes, recursively
references from — Returns the set of all field references found in a set of methods
references to — Return references to a string constant or a field
resources containing — Finds the string resource that's value is a given string constant
resources with names — Finds the string resource that's name is a given string constant
same — A transform that leaves the set unchanged
string references from — Returns the set of all string constant references found in a set of methods
uncorrelated — Change members of a set to another, specified set
unique — Remove duplicate elements in a set

Transforms change a set into another set. You apply a transform to the result of a set expression or another transform by putting it in front. methods in is a transform that changes a set of classes to the set of methods in those classes; applying it to the set expression

class "ObjectDB"

results in this set expression that returns the set of methods in that class:

methods in class "ObjectDB"

Many transforms and value expressions represent the relationships between objects in the BBQ database; use these to traverse the relationships to get to your desired object type.

(Diagram illustrating object relationships and transforms)

Transforms can be combined with other transforms with set operators. This example returns a set of the derived classes of Persistent together with the class itself.

( derived classes of union same ) class "Persistent"

Transforms can be used as arguments to some special operators (exists, group of, recursive) to create new filters, value expressions or transforms. The following example makes a filter from the fields in transform, to make a set expression that shows all the classes in package com.antlersoft.odb that don't contain any fields.

not exists ( fields in ) classes in package "com.antlersoft.odb"
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