find_entities_filtered searching for multiple names at once

[keyboardhack]

Currently i have a mod that has to search the whole map for 8 different entities which each has a different name. Currently this is done by calling find_entities_filtered 8 different times with a different name each time. On large maps this takes more than 16ms. The goal of this interface request is to add an interface that can reduce this lag by only calling a single function to get the entities.

Currently the commands look like this:

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surface.find_entities_filtered({name = name1})
surface.find_entities_filtered({name = name2})
surface.find_entities_filtered({name = name3})
...
surface.find_entities_filtered({name = name8})

I would like to add another way of calling the function so it can take multiple names at once.

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surface.find_entities_filtered({name = {name1, name2, name3,..., name8}})

[Nexela]

surface.find_entities_filtered {name = {"A", "b"}, type = {"C", "D"}

yada yada for
name :: string (optional)
type :: string (optional)
ghost_name :: string (optional)
ghost_type :: string (optional)
force :: string or LuaForce (optional)

All of those!

[eradicator]

surface.find_entities_filtered {name = {"A", "b"}, type = {"C", "D"}

yada yada for
name :: string (optional)
type :: string (optional)
ghost_name :: string (optional)
ghost_type :: string (optional)
force :: string or LuaForce (optional)

All of those!

Interesting. Does that pair or mix? I.e. will it find an A of type D, or only A's of type C?

[Rseding91]

Ok.

[eradicator]

Ok.

Do we get both pair and mix modes? Paired sounds more useful for OP.

[Rseding91]

Ok.

Do we get both pair and mix modes? Paired sounds more useful for OP.

What?

[eradicator]

Ok.

Do we get both pair and mix modes? Paired sounds more useful for OP.

What?

for something like

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surface.find_entities_filtered {name = {"house", "boat"}, type = {"assembling-machine", "car"}

Will it return car types named "house" or only car types named "boat" and assembling-machine types called "house"? I.e. if multiple lists of filters are specified, is the result the cartesian product of all the filters or not? Becaues for "searching multiple things with one api call" it would be better if it was not a cartesian product. Ofc that only works if all lists are the same length.

[Klonan]

Ok.

Do we get both pair and mix modes? Paired sounds more useful for OP.

What?

for something like

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surface.find_entities_filtered {name = {"house", "boat"}, type = {"assembling-machine", "car"}

Will it return car types named "house" or only car types named "boat" and assembling-machine types called "house"? I.e. if multiple lists of filters are specified, is the result the cartesian product of all the filters or not? Becaues for "searching multiple things with one api call" it would be better if it was not a cartesian product. Ofc that only works if all lists are the same length.

It is implemented as an array of filters, so you do

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surface.find_entities_filtered{
  name = {"car", "tank"},
  force = {"enemy", "player"}
}

[eradicator]

Oh, so like...

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--Like this?
surface.find_entities_filtered{
 {name = 'car', force = 'enemy'},
 {name='tank', area = area_var},
  type='car',
 --etc
 }
--Or that?
surface.find_entities_filtered{
 {name = 'car', type='car', force = 'enemy'},
 {name='tank', type='car', area = area_var},
 --etc
}

I.e. is are common filter properties per table or can they be specified outside?

[Optera]

The API description should be expanded with an example of this multi filter search.

[Rseding91]

The filters work identical to before except now each section that supports an array is all or-ed inside that one filter.

[Nexela]

The API description should be expanded with an example of this multi filter search.

It was

name = string or array of strings