searching a list of sublists for matching expression

Try

assoc("one" mylist)

It looks like you were trying to do something like this:

setof(list mylist

  destructuringBind((first second) list

    string(first) && rexMatchp("one" first)

  )

)

You could also write that this way:

setof(list mylist

  stringp(car(list)) && rexMatchp("one" car(list))

)

thanks so much for your reply, great examples!

I'm dealing with sublists that are a little less structured than my simple example, and I should have made the example strings longer.

My sublist fields may vary, the number of field that matches the string may vary, and the string is a partial match.

Presuming a more complex list/sublist and string search, this seems to work ok :

foreach(list mylist foreach(item list if(stringp(item) && rexMatchp("match_this" item) then mynewlist=cons(list mynewlist))))

(Of course, the newlist variable has to be initialized first)

If you have no idea about the list structure (how many nesting levels etc...) I think you need to recursively walk through the list in question...try this one:

(defun searchList (theList regex "lt")
   (let (sublists result)
      (if (exists el theList (stringp el) && (rexMatchp regex el)) then
         theList
      else
         sublists = (setof el theList (listp el))
         (while sublists
            result = (searchList (car sublists) regex)
            (when result
               sublists = nil)
            sublists = (cdr sublists))
         result) ))

thanks so much for your reply, great examples!

I'm dealing with sublists that are a little less structured than my simple example, and I should have made the example strings longer.

My sublist fields may vary, the number of field that matches the string may vary, and the string is a partial match.

I that case, I suggest the following:

> mylist='(("one" 1) ("two" 2) (3 "buckle") (_ 4 "my") (_ _ 5 "shoe"))
(("one" 1)
 ("two" 2)
 (3 "buckle")
 (_ 4 "my")
 (_ _ 5 "shoe")
)
> setof(list mylist rexMatchList("e" setof(l list stringp(l))))
(("one" 1)
 (3 "buckle")
 (_ _ 5 "shoe")
)

great examples both - thank you! rexMatchList was handy.  I only have one level of hierarchy, but the recursive search example is much appreciated.