Adding and Removing Attribute Values

This section demonstrates how to add and remove attributes and their values.

Adding Attribute Values

If the attribute name and value are strings, you might be able to use slapi_entry_add_string(). The following example builds an entry first by setting the DN, then by adding attributes with string values.

Example 5–5 Adding String Attribute Values (entries.c)

#include "slapi-plugin.h"

int
test_create_entry()
{
    Slapi_Entry * entry = NULL;        /* Original entry          */

    entry = slapi_entry_alloc();
    slapi_entry_set_dn(entry, slapi_ch_strdup("dc=example,dc=com"));
    slapi_entry_add_string(entry, "objectclass", "top");
    slapi_entry_add_string(entry, "objectclass", "domain");
    slapi_entry_add_string(entry, "dc", "example");

    /* Add code using the entry you created.....                  */

    slapi_entry_free(entry);

    return (0);
}

When working with values that already exist or with values that are not strings, you can use the following functions

• Use slapi_entry_add_values_sv() to add new values to an attribute of an entry. This function returns an error when duplicates of the new values already exist.

• Use slapi_entry_attr_merge_sv() to add new values to the existing values of a multivalued attribute. This function does not return an error when duplicates of the new values already exist.

The following example demonstrates slapi_entry_attr_merge_sv().

Example 5–6 Merging Attribute Values (entries.c)

#include "slapi-plugin.h"

int
test_ldif()
{
    Slapi_Entry * entry = NULL;        /* Entry to hold LDIF      */
    Slapi_Value * values[2];           /* Attribute values        */

    entry = slapi_entry_alloc();

    /* Add code to transform an LDIF representation into an entry.*/

    /* Add a description by setting the value of the attribute.
     * Although this is overkill when manipulating string values,
     * it can be handy when manipulating binary values.           */
    values[0] = slapi_value_new_string("Description for the entry.");
    values[1] = NULL;
    if (slapi_entry_attr_merge_sv(entry,"description",values) != 0)
        /* Merge did not work if processing arrives here. */ ;

    slapi_entry_free(entry);

    return (0);
}

If the attribute exists in the entry, slapi_entry_attr_merge_sv() merges the specified values into the set of existing values. If the attribute does not exist, slapi_entry_attr_merge_sv() adds the attribute with the specified values.

Removing Attribute Values

Remove attribute values with slapi_entry_delete_string() or slapi_entry_delete_values_sv().