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Please tell me what is the role of *= operator in below piece of code

@If(@UserRoles *= "[admin]" ; "" ; @Return(""));

It is formula language used in lotus notes databases.

NotesArt
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1 Answers1

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That is a Permuted Equal. 

 if a="this" or a="that" or a="other" then....

So this code sets to "" if is admin, otherwise it bails with a "".

Agree with @rhsatrhs, this is unclear and should be written using a normal =.

Here is a link to the Permutations operators official documentation.

Jouramie
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  • Thanks for the answer. I am using it because got to do what has been assigned. – NotesArt Mar 27 '12 at 19:59
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    In this case, the permuted equal operator is completely unnecessary and should be removed for clarity. When comparing a list to a scalar, as is occurring here, the scalar is compared to each element of the list. In other words, you get the if a="this" or a="that" behavior with a regular "=" operator, so @UserRoles = "[admin]" is all you need -- even if the user does have multiple roles. The "*=" operator is only useful when comparing two lists, in which case every element of listA is compared with every element of listB. – Richard Schwartz Mar 28 '12 at 04:26
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    And no, *= is not like the ternary operator in other languages. Assigning an @If statement to a variable is the Notes formula equivalent of the ternary operator. I.e., the Notes formula x:= @If(condition,value1,value2); is the equivalent of C or Java's x = condition ? value1 : vaule2; – Richard Schwartz Mar 28 '12 at 04:33