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   SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 1998-2026 Paulo Moura <pmoura@logtalk.org>
   SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

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   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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.. rst-class:: align-right

**control construct**

.. index:: pair: []/1; Control construct
.. _control_delegate_message_1:

``[]/1``
========

Description
-----------

::

   [Object::Message]
   [{Proxy}::Message]

This control construct allows the programmer to send a message to an object
while preserving the original sender and meta-call context. It is mainly used
in the definition of object handlers for unknown messages. This functionality
is usually known as *delegation* but be aware that this is an overloaded
word that can mean different things in different object-oriented
programming languages.

To prevent the use of this control construct to break object
encapsulation, an attempt to delegate a message to the original sender
results in an error. The remaining error conditions are the same as the
:ref:`control_send_to_object_2` control construct.

Note that, despite the correct functor for this control construct being
(traditionally) ``'.'/2``, we refer to it as ``[]/1`` simply to
emphasize that the syntax is a list with a single element.

Modes and number of proofs
--------------------------

::

   [+object_identifier::+callable] - zero_or_more
   [{+object_identifier}::+callable] - zero_or_more

Errors
------

| ``Object`` is a variable:
|     ``instantiation_error``
| Object is neither a variable nor an object identifier:
|     ``type_error(object_identifier, Object)``
| ``Object`` does not exist:
|     ``existence_error(object, Object)``
| ``Object`` and the original *sender* are the same object:
|     ``permission_error(access, object, Sender)``
|
| ``Proxy`` is a variable:
|     ``instantiation_error``
| ``Proxy`` is neither a variable nor an object identifier:
|     ``type_error(object_identifier, Proxy)``
| ``Proxy``, with predicate indicator ``Name/Arity``, does not exist in the ``user`` pseudo-object:
|     ``existence_error(procedure, Name/Arity)``
|
| ``Message`` is a variable:
|     ``instantiation_error``
| ``Message`` is neither a variable nor a callable term:
|     ``type_error(callable, Message)``
| ``Message``, with predicate indicator ``Name/Arity``, is declared private:
|     ``permission_error(access, private_predicate, Name/Arity)``
| ``Message``, with predicate indicator ``Name/Arity``, is declared protected:
|     ``permission_error(access, protected_predicate, Name/Arity)``
| ``Message``, with predicate indicator ``Name/Arity``, is not declared:
|     ``existence_error(predicate_declaration, Name/Arity)``

Examples
--------

::

   % delegate unknown messages to the "backup" object:
   forward(Message) :-
       [backup::Message].

.. seealso::

   :ref:`control_send_to_object_2`,
   :ref:`control_send_to_self_1`,
   :ref:`control_call_super_1`,
   :ref:`methods_forward_1`
