REBOL 3 Datatypes: Issue!

As of alpha 106, issue! is part of any-word!. The description below is now obsolete and needs to be updated.

Contents

Concept

An issue! is a series of characters used to sequence symbols or identifiers for things like telephone numbers, model numbers, serial numbers, and credit card numbers.

Issue values are a subset of series, and thus can be manipulated as series:

probe copy/part find #888-555-1212 "555" 3
#555

Format

Issues start with a number sign (#) and continue until the first delimiting character (such as a space) is reached.

#707-467-8000
#A-0987654321-CD-09876
#1234-5678-4321-8765
#MG82/32-7

Values that contain delimiting characters should be written as strings rather than issues.

Creation

The to-issue function converts data to the issue! datatype:

probe to-issue "1234-56-7890"
#1234-56-7890

Related

Use issue? to determine whether a value is an issue! datatype.

probe issue? #1234-56-7890
true

As issues are a subset of the series pseudotype, use series? to check this:

probe series? #1234-56-7890
true

The form function returns an issue as a string without the number sign (#):

probe form #1234-56-7890
1234-56-7890

The mold function returns an issue as a string that can be read by REBOL as an issue value:

probe mold #1234-56-7890
#1234-56-7890

The print function prints an issue to standard output after doing a reform on it:

print #1234-56-7890
1234-56-7890