DictionarySlicing

Enables slicing dictionaries with sliced, or directly by using function syntax.

Example using sliced:

using DictionarySlicing

odict = OrderedDict(:Apl => "apple",
		    :Brc => "birch",
		    :Cnd => "candle",
		    :Drn => "dragon",
		    :Exp => "expensive",
		    :Frg => "forage",
		    :Gra => "grain",
		    :Hlt => "health",
		    :Irn => "irony",
		    :Jak => "jackal" )     # length is 10

dxs = sliced(odict, 4)

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 1 entry:
	  :Drn => "dragon"

dxs = sliced(odict,
		2,
		4:5,
		[7,8],
		5:length(odict),	# instead of `end`, get the last index with `length`
		[8,5])  

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 8 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"           		 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5
	  :Gra => "grain"  			 #  7
	  :Hlt => "health"			 #  8
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Irn => "irony"			 #  9
	  :Jak => "jackal"			 #  10

Overlaps are handled such that same key => value pairs are not added again. If you want to change this to keep the last occurrence, use the keyword argument keep = :last (or keep = "last").

dxs = sliced(odict,
		2,
		4:5,
		[7,8],
		5:length(odict),
		[8,5];
		keep = :last)

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 8 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"		    	 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Gra => "grain"			 #  7
	  :Irn => "irony"			 #  9
	  :Jak => "jackal"			 #  10
	  :Hlt => "health"			 #  8
	  :Exp => "expensive"			 #  5

If you want to do more complicated things like filtering the collected indices you can use the filter keyword with any filtering function.

dxs = sliced(odict,
		2,
		4:5,
		[7,8],
		5:length(odict),
		[8,5];
		filter = x->in(x,5:6))

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 2 entries:
	  :Exp => "expensive"			 #  5
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6

dxs = sliced(odict,
		2,
		4:5,
		[7,8],
		5:length(odict),
		[8,5];
		keep = :last,
		filter = x->in(x,5:6))

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 2 entries:
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5

Ordinarily keep = :last occurs after filtering, but if for some reason you want it to happen before the filter use keep = :lastbefore. Likewise, if you want it to keep the first instance before filtering, do keep = :firstbefore. This is possibly desirable if your filter function involves the number of occurrences.

Since we are working with dictionaries, we are often dealing with keys that are Symbols or Strings. These keys also work, instead of or in combination with numbers.

dxs = sliced(odict,
		2,
		4:5,
		[7,8],
		5:length(odict),
		[8,5],
		:Apl) 

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 8 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"           		 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5
	  :Gra => "grain"  			 #  7
	  :Hlt => "health"			 #  8
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Irn => "irony"			 #  9
	  :Jak => "jackal"			 #  10
	  :Apl => "apple"			 #  1

The function syntax version only works with OrderedDict, so convert your dict to an OrderedDict to use this. Usually this just means using the constructor like newdict = OrderedDict(olddict).

Example using function syntax:

using DictionarySlicing

directslicing()		# need to call this function to activate it.

odict = OrderedDict(:Apl => "apple",
		    :Brc => "birch",
		    :Cnd => "candle",
		    :Drn => "dragon",
		    :Exp => "expensive",
		    :Frg => "forage",
		    :Gra => "grain",
		    :Hlt => "health",
		    :Irn => "irony",
		    :Jak => "jackal" )

dxs = odict(4)

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 1 entry:
	  :Drn => "dragon"

dxs = odict(2, 4:5, [7,8], 5:length(odict), [8,5])

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 8 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"           		 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5
	  :Gra => "grain"  			 #  7
	  :Hlt => "health"			 #  8
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Irn => "irony"			 #  9
	  :Jak => "jackal"			 #  10

dxs = [2, 4:5] |> odict	# easy piping. throw numbers at it

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 3 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"           		 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5

dxs = odict(2, 4:5, [7,8], 5:length(odict), [8,5];
		keep = :last)

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 8 entries:
	  :Brc => "birch"		    	 #  2
	  :Drn => "dragon"			 #  4
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Gra => "grain"			 #  7
	  :Irn => "irony"			 #  9
	  :Jak => "jackal"			 #  10
	  :Hlt => "health"			 #  8
	  :Exp => "expensive"			 #  5

dxs = odict(2, 4:5, [7,8], 5:length(odict), [8,5];
		filter = x->in(x,5:6))

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 2 entries:
	  :Exp => "expensive"			 #  5
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6

dxs = odict(2, 4:5, [7,8], 5:length(odict), [8,5];
		keep = :last,
		filter = x->in(x,5:6))

	OrderedDict{Symbol, String} with 2 entries:
	  :Frg => "forage"			 #  6
	  :Exp => "expensive"		 	 #  5