Item qualifier

The item qualifier can be used for attributes only. It causes PPS to treat the value following the qualifier as a set of items. Items in a set are separated by a user-defined separator, such as a comma.

The item separator:

is required
must be the last character in a value that uses the item qualifier
can be any character not used in the items

Adding and deleting set items

You may add or delete only one set item at a time. For example, to add items to a set:

[i]items::hammer,
[i]items::screw driver,

Or, to delete an item from a set:

[-i]items::hammer,

The following examples show incorrect item syntax and are not permitted:

[i]items::hammer,screw driver,

Or:

[-i]items::hammer,screw driver,

Examples

Example 1: Duplicate items

This example shows that PPS ignores a duplicate attempt to add the same item to a set. The following lines written:

[i]items::hammer,
[i]items::hammer,
[i]items::screw driver,

would result in the following being read by a subscriber:

items::hammer,screw driver,

Example 2: Null items

This example shows how PPS supports a null item in a set. The following line written to the set created in the previous example:

[i]items::,

would result in the following being read by a subscriber:

items::hammer,screw driver,,

Example 3: Delete an item

This example shows how to delete an item from a set. The following line written to the set created and updated in the previous examples:

[-i]items::hammer,

would result in the following being read by a subscriber:

items::screw driver,,