Picocli: feature request: multi-option with arity

[ymenager]

Unless I've missed something it doesn't seem to be possible to implement multi-option with arity like in jcommander, is that correct ?

so for example i have an option that take two strings, and I want to be able to use that option multiple times:

-val foo bar -val zaz zoz

[remkop]

@ymenager Sorry for my late reply.

The use case you mention should already work like you describe.
See this unit test (and the two preceding tests): https://github.com/remkop/picocli/blob/master/src/test/java/picocli/CommandLineArityTest.java#L622

If I missed something, can you provide a program (or a failing test) that reproduces the problem?

[ymenager]

Ah, I see... my test was wrong I thought i had to use a list of lists in that scenario.. all good then :)

[remkop]

Glad to hear that!

[hanslovsky]

Please use specific commit link for CommmandLineArityTest#L622. This makes finding this a lot easier.

[hanslovsky]

The test specifies double[] doubleOptions. What if I prefer double[][] doubleOptions, or in my use case String[][]? Following the initial comment, I would like to have something like

{
    {"foo", "bar"},
    {"zaz", "zoz"}
}

[remkop]

This sounds a bit like #358 repeating argument groups. However, an argument group would probably be a separate class with annotations for the elements of the group. Something like

class Pair {
  @Parameter(index = “0” arity = “1”)
  double first;

  @Parameter(index = “1” arity = “1”)
  double second;
}

Then the application would look something like:

class App {
  @Option(names = “-v”)
  boolean verbose;

  @Option(names = “--pair”)
  Pair[] pairs;
}

As it stands, picocli can only gather the value pairs in a 1-dimensional array.

If you want nested arrays you’ll have to convert this array into a multi-dimensional array in the application.

[hanslovsky]

Separate classes with annotations seems like a very reasonable solution.

cc @nthistle

[remkop]

It may take a while before I can get to #358 though.

[hanslovsky]

We will pass each group as comma separated String for now and can break the command line interface without worries once #358 is merged, so that solution works for us. Btw, picocli has made my command line parsing life in Java so much better.