Re: completing-read depricated initial-input

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> [2022-06-23 14:22]:
> Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > Note the terms "mostly-deprecated", "discourage", "recommend",
> > "superseded".  So maybe the docstring of `completing-read' should be
> > adjusted to the statements above in order to avoid confusion?
> 
> The purpose of `completing-read' is a bit different from `read-string'
> and `read-from-minibuffer'.  Providing INITIAL-INPUT is useful for the
> latter, but much less for `completing-read' in my opinion.  If at all
> (anybody who has a believable real-life example?).

Thanks, it gave me idea so I have improved my function to
automatically insert auto-initial-input based on last value of
automatically generated history variable.

It spares my time in some entries, and I do many of them per day..

(defun rcd-completing-read-sql-hash (prompt sql pg &optional history initial-input not-require-match auto-initial-input)
  "Complete selection by using SQL.

First column shall be unique id, followed by text
representation.  Example SQL query:

SELECT people_id, people_firstname || ' ' || people_lastname FROM people

PG is database handle.  HISTORY is supported with INITIAL-INPUT
Argument PROMPT will be displayed to user."
  (let* ((hash (rcd-sql-hash-with-key sql pg))
	 (completion-ignore-case t)
	 (require-match (if not-require-match nil t))
	 (history (or history (rcd-ask-history-variable prompt)))
	 (initial-input (or initial-input (when auto-initial-input (car (symbol-value history)))))
	 (choice (completing-read prompt hash nil require-match initial-input history))
	 (choice (string-trim choice))
	 (id (gethash choice hash)))
    (if id id
      (if not-require-match 
	  choice))))

Example:

That would show user's name and email address and ID number, and I
would get ID number as result.

(rcd-completing-read-sql-hash "People: " "SELECT people_id, people_firstname || ' ' || people_lastname FROM people LIMIT 10" cf-db nil nil nil t) ⇒ 32367


-- 
Jean

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