persistent

The persistent filter is used to indicate that a numeric variable is persistent. The persistent filter consists of the word persistent followed by an assignent to a numeric variable:

  persistent x = 3
  persistent y += 1

The variable must not have been used prior to the persistent assignment.

The persistent filter indicates that its variable is persistent, which means that:

• the variable is initialized to 0 and
• the variable retains its value between games.

The values of all persistent variables are output to standard output after CQL has concluded processing all the games in the input PGN database.

Since version 6.0.2 of CQL, a persistent variable may also be declared without an assignment, e.g.:

  persistent x
  x=20

Examples

Persistent variables are used in the persistent.cql example. That example matches no game, but when run on the Heijden database database, it produces output like this:

NumberGames: 85619
NumberStalemates: 12879
NumberUnderpromotions: 10599
NumberRookPromotions: 2192
NumberBishopPromotions: 1686
NumberKnightPromotions: 6721
NumberQueenPromotions: 41436
NumberPromotions: 52035
NumberEnpassants: 631
NumberCastles: 229
NumberMates: 14399
NumberWins: 54786
NumberWhiteWins: 54786
NumberDraws: 30833
NumberBlackWins: 0
NumberPositions: 1549476