# cx

[![Package Version](https://img.shields.io/hexpm/v/cx)](https://hex.pm/packages/cx)
[![Hex Docs](https://img.shields.io/badge/hex-docs-ffaff3)](https://hexdocs.pm/cx/)

A library, written in [Gleam](https://gleam.run/), to help create data
structures containing different data types and levels of nesting.

**Note**: This library is still being written!

## Background

Gleam is statically typed, and has certain restrictions for certain data types.
For example, a [Dict](https://hexdocs.pm/gleam_stdlib/gleam/dict.html) in Gleam
has this restriction on the keys and values:

```
...all the keys must be of the same type and all the values must be of the same type.
```

[Lists](https://hexdocs.pm/gleam_stdlib/gleam/list.html) have a similar restriction:

```
All elements of a list must be the same type
```

What if we want to represent more complicated, nested data structures as well?
For example, here is a native data structure in Python:

```python3
data = {
    "settings": {
        "theme": "dark",
        "themes: ["light", "dark"]
    }
    "people": [
        {"Nicknames": ["Jane", "Jill"]},
    ]
}
```

Can we do this in Gleam? Yes, we can, with
[records](https://tour.gleam.run/data-types/records/).
Records can also help us know the type of each object stored in the data
structure, which is significant because runtime reflection is not available in
Gleam.

This library was written to be used with an HTML templating engine, where pieces
the data structure is used to replace variables (e.g. `@person.name`)in the
HTML.

## Installing
```sh
gleam add cx
```

## Usage

```gleam
import cx

pub fn main() {
  let context =
    cx.dict()
    |> cx.add(
      "settings",
      cx.dict()
        |> cx.add_string("theme", "dark")
        |> cx.add_strings("themes", ["light", "dark"]),
    )
    |> cx.add_list("people", [
      cx.add_strings(cx.dict(), "Nicknames", ["Jane", "Jill"]),
    ])


    // Result: Ok(["light", "dark"])
    cx.get_strings(context, "settings.themes")
}
```

Further documentation can be found at <https://hexdocs.pm/cx>.

## Development

```sh
gleam run   # Run the project
gleam test  # Run the tests
```