[erlang-questions] illegal guard expression: filelib:is_dir(H)

[Jayson Vantuyl]

Oops, put that first example after the second (not the third)  
paragraph. That's what I get for mailing from my phone. :(

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 14, 2010, at 3:09 AM, Jayson Vantuyl <kagato@REDACTED> wrote:

> Oddly, in Erlang, "if" only accepts expressions that are valid in  
> guards. This usually means special builtin functions that are  
> normally used to make pattern matching more precise. Because pattern  
> matching must be fast, most function calls are forbidden.
>
> For this reason, you'll usually see a case (or a try) statement  
> where you'd expect an "if".
>
> To make thing even more confusing, "if" is most useful when you have  
> a number of unrelated comparisons (limited to guards) that should be  
> checked until one is true. Most other languages would use a chain of  
> if-elsif-else statements or even a case statement.  E.g. "case  
> filelib:is_dir(H) of true -> ...; false -> ... end"
>
> To top it off, you could save that expression in a variable and that  
> could work, but would still be confusing. E.g. "F = filelib:is_dir 
> (H), if F == true -> ...; true -> ... end"
>
> This is all a but backwards and probably more confusing than it has  
> a right to be.  That said, you should probably read the section of  
> the Erlang manual about guards. Once you grok them, they're  
> powerfully useful. Until then, just remember that "if" is for guards  
> only, and you probably want a case (or try) statement.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Feb 14, 2010, at 2:51 AM, Kay Kay <kaykay.unique@REDACTED> wrote:
>
>> I have a function along the following lines
>>
>> do_process_elements([],  _) ->   [];
>> do_process_elements([H | _], Fn) ->
>> if
>>   filelib:is_dir(H) ->
>>     process_directory(H, Fn);
>>   true ->
>>     process_file(H, Fn)
>> end.
>>
>>
>> When I compile - I get the following error,  where the line number  
>> refers to    - filelib:is_dir(H) function.
>>
>> ./test.erl:23: illegal guard expression
>>
>> Given that filelib:is_dir(H) returns true / false  - I thought this  
>> would fit in here as a predicate. What could be going wrong ?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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