How to define a function that either takes arguments or doesnt? - fish

Question

I am using Fish shell....
Basically, to do something like this:
if (first argument == --r) {
do something
} else {
Do something
if (first argument == --n) {
do more
}
}
To achieve the first if statement I tried:
if test (count $argv) -eq 1 -a $argv[1] = '--r'
But that gives a message:
test: Missing argument at index 6

Answer 1

Functions in Fish don't require their parameters to be specified when you define the function. Any arguments sent to the function by the user are automatically stored in an array called argv. In order to determine whether arguments were sent, you can either count the number of elements in the array, or determine the length of the array as a string. I do the latter:
function my_func
if [ -z "$argv" ]; # No arguments
echo "No arguments supplied"
return
else # At least one argument
if [ "$argv[1]" = "--r" ];
echo "Excellent!"
return
end
end
end
If you prefer to use count, then it will look more like this:
function my_func
if [ (count $argv) -eq 1 -a "$argv[1]" = "--r" ];
# Exactly one argument with specified value "--r"
echo "Excellent!"
return
else # May have arguments, but none equal to "--r"
echo "Give me the right arguments"
return
end
end
Your use of set -q argv[1] is also a good option. But when you're checking for string equality, don't forget to surround your variable in quotes, like this: test "$argv[1]" = "--r".
Here's another method, using the switch...case conditional test:
function my_func
# No arguments
if [ -z "$argv" ]; and return
# At least one argument
switch $argv[1];
case --r;
# do some stuff
return
case "*";
# Any other arguments passed
return
end
end
end

Answer 2

This worked for me:
if set -q argv[1] ;and test $argv[1] = "--r"

Answer 3

Let's start with the error you get when executing this:
if test (count $argv) -eq 1 -a $argv[1] = '--r'
That happens because fish first expands $argv[1] then executes test. If argv has no values then that statement turns into
if test 0 -eq 1 -a = '--r'
Which isn't valid syntax for the test command. It doesn't matter that the first sub-expression evaluates to false since test parses the entire expression before evaluating it.
Rather than doing test (count $argv) -eq 1 just do set -q argv[1] to test if argv has at least one argument. Note the lack of a dollar-sign.
If you're using fish 2.7.0 or newer I recommend the new argparse builtin for handling arguments. Several of the standard functions that ship with fish use it so you can look at them, as well as man argparse, for examples of how to use it. Using argparse is almost always safer, less likely to result in bugs due to sloppy argument parsing using hand written fish script, and will provide argument parsing semantics identical to most commands including all the fish builtins. Including correctly handling short and long flags.

Answer 4

well if the argument is optional then you can do this by:
//check if variable exists
if (typeof variable === 'undefined'){
}
else{
if(typeof variable){}
}