Why are we enforced to use `is_*` methods of tagged union

[rk90]

I am trying to list all members in a column/row format.

For example, column1=email, column2=status

I can add email to the column1 row just fine, but I cannot access the status tag. I am enforced to call each is_* methods until I get a True response and then figure which is_* method returned True and the corresponding tag to the column2 row. Why can't we simply access the tag? Why this overhead of calling each is_* method and why not just add an attribute that returns the tag (I am reluctant to use the _tag attribute).

[Greg-DB]

Thanks for the feedback! In general, the SDKs are meant to abstract away the concept of the "tag", but I'll pass this along as a feature request for a public accessor for the tag value itself. 

(Also, "_tag" is considered private, but that said, it's unlikely to change.)

[rk90]

I appreciate your response, Greg.

Please consider use cases where the value of the tag is necessary. For example, let's say I want to export all users/groups to a CSV file with column names that correspond to the tag names and rows that correspond to the value of the tag.

Columns: id, firstname, lastname, email, status

Rows: <id>, X, Y, x.y@noemail.com, <active|suspended>

In this case, I just need be to extract the value associated with `status` (i.e. user.status should either evaluate to 'active|suspended|removed'). This is unfortunately not possible with the current specification. Is there any other way to retrieve what I want?

Also, can you explain what following in the SDK implies? What are corresponding get_* methods here? I couldn't find any get_* methods.

This class acts as a tagged union. Only one of the is_* methods will return true. To get the associated value of a tag (if one exists), use the corresponding get_* method.

[Greg-DB]

With the Python SDK, you can use the "_tag" property to access the value. It is private, and so not officially supported, but I don't expect it to change. Just make sure you test it whenver you update to a new version of the SDK.

The get_* methods can be used to retrieve the value of the set union field. The field may not always have a typed value to return, so you won't always see the get_* methods on any particular class. You can see an example of one at CreateFolderError.get_path though.

[rk90]

Thanks Greg!

I'm using a hacky approach to get the results. I wasn't confident using '_tag' attribute as it's private and implementation changes might break my code.