Hello there! I’m trying to create a simple auction contract with daml to show to my professor. I managed to create something following the template of another contract that I’ve already created successfully. However, in the auction contract at some point it displays the message “Parse error on input 2” and I don’t know what I did wrong. Thank you in advance to those who will be able to help!
Daml is a space sensitive language.
It is hard to know precisely but can you try aligning the choice names, ie the D in “Decline” with the M in “MakeANewBild” ? And the w in “with” with the d in “do” ?
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If you could, please include copy-pasted Daml code text that yields the error instead of screenshots; the forum will format Daml code nicely if you put it between ``` lines,
module LikeSo
template Foo with -- ...
-- more code
But my guess is the same as @Leonid_Rozenberg 's, i.e. Decline needs to be lined up with the previous choice name.
I tried that and if I align the d of decline with the m of MakeANewBid it displays even more errors. While if I align the d of do with the w of with nothing changes.
template Auction
with
auctioneer: Party
bidder: Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
limit: Decimal
currency: Text
start: Time
end: Time
dateAuction: Date
where
signatory auctioneer , bidder
ensure limit > 0 && start < end
template AuctionBid
with
auctioneer: Party
bidder: Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
where
signatory auctioneer
controller bidder can
MakeABid: ContractId Bid
with
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
do
create Bid
with
limit = > 10.0
start = 10.30
end = 11.00
bid= 1000.00
currency = "Pound"
Decline: ContractId DeclineBid
with
reason: Text
do
create DeclineBid
with
..
template DeclineBid
with
auctioneer: Party
bidder: Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
reason: Text
where
signatory auctioneer , bidder
controller bidder can
MakeANewBid: ContractId AuctionBid
do
create AuctionBid with ..Nevertheless, those errors are positive progress in your development. What is happening is that the rule about the alignment of the choices is checked earlier; those errors don’t go away, they were simply hidden by the earlier alignment check failing. As a rule, fewer errors doesn’t definitely mean you’re closer to working code; though it often works out that way, it doesn’t in this case. A better rule of thumb is that more complicated errors means you’re closer to working code; simple syntax errors prevent semantics from being checked and reported on.
If you’re seeing the “Conflicting definitions” error, that’s telling you that you’re defining two bid variables in the same scope, two limit variables, and so on, and that’s probably a mistake. You’ve already defined those as part of the contract payload (under template... with); did you mean to move them?
Deleting those variables from the choice arguments fixes that error and the remaining errors in what you’ve posted; I’ve also passed through the contract payload variables under the assumption that this is what you actually want. (If it’s not, use different variable names.) Changes to your code shown in this diff patch (via - and + lines):
--- daml/ForumTest.orig.daml 2021-10-26 18:07:48.000000000 -0400
+++ daml/ForumTest.daml 2021-10-26 18:08:03.000000000 -0400
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
dateAuction: Date
where
signatory auctioneer , bidder
- ensure limit > 0 && start < end
+ ensure limit > 0.0 && start < end
template AuctionBid
with
@@ -31,21 +31,15 @@
controller bidder can
MakeABid: ContractId Bid
with
- limit: Decimal
- start: Time
- end: Time
- bid: Decimal
- currency: Text
- do
- create Bid
- with
- limit = > 10.0
- start = 10.30
- end = 11.00
- bid= 1000.00
- currency = "Pound"
-
- Decline: ContractId DeclineBid
+ do
+ create Bid with
+ limit
+ start
+ end
+ bid
+ currency
+
+ Decline: ContractId DeclineBid
with
reason: Text
do
@@ -73,3 +67,13 @@
MakeANewBid: ContractId AuctionBid
do
create AuctionBid with ..
+
+-- just a sample, wasn't included
+template Bid with
+ limit: Decimal
+ start: Time
+ end: Time
+ bid: Decimal
+ currency: Text
+ where
+ signatory [] -- error, contracts need signatories
1 Like
First of all, thank you so much for trying to help me, I really appreciate that. I tried to create another page to redo all the contract from the beginning trying to respect the spaces and the overall setting. However now it says that there are conflicting definitions for:
limit = > 10.0
-
start = 10.30 -
end = 11.00 -
bid= 1000.00 -
currency = "Pound"
If I try to delete them, the error stays. How do you think I should edit that part?
module Auction2 where
template Auction2
with
auctioneer : Party
bidder : Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
limit: Decimal
currency: Text
start: Time
end: Time
dateAuction: Date
where
signatory auctioneer, bidder
ensure limit > 0 && start < end
template AuctionBid
with
auctioneer: Party
bidder: Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
where
signatory auctioneer
controller bidder can
MakeABid: ContractId Auction2
with
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
do
create Auction2
with
limit = > 10.0
start = 10.30
end = 11.00
bid= 1000.00
currency = "Pound"
Decline: ContractId DeclineBid
with
reason: Text
do
create DeclineBid with ..
template DeclineBid
with
auctioneer: Party
bidder: Party
object: Text
bid: Decimal
currency: Text
limit: Decimal
start: Time
end: Time
reason: Text
where
signatory auctioneer, bidder
controller bidder can
MakeNewBid: ContractId AuctionBid
do
create AuctionBid with ..The issue is that your choice defines fields with the same name as the template fields. The easiest fix is to rename one of them, e.g., suffix the fields in the choice argument
controller bidder can
MakeABid: ContractId Auction2
with
limitArg: Decimal
startArg: Time
endArg: Time
bidArg: Decimal
currencyArg: Text
do
create Auction2
with
limit = > 10.0
start = 10.30
end = 11.00
bid= 1000.00
currency = "Pound"
Once you fixed that, you’ll get another error about limit = > 10.0. I assume that’s probably just a typo and you meant limit = 10.0.
After fixing that there is another error at ensure limit > 0. That is caused by the fact that 0 is of type Int whereas limit is of type Decimal. You can use ensure limit > 0.0 instead to fix that.
On to the next error
daml/Main.daml:40:22: error:
• Constructor ‘Auction2’ does not have the required strict field(s): auctioneer,
bidder, object, dateAuction
You didn’t specify all fields here when calling create Action2. The first 3 can be copied from Auction2 either by specifying them manually or by using .. which copies the fields of the given name that are already in scope. I don’t know what you want to set dateAuction to. In the interest of fixing the error so we can take a look at later errors, let’s set it to the current date. Note that you need to import DA.Date` for this to work.
currentTime <- getTime
create Auction2
with
limit = 10.0
start = 10.30
end = 11.00
bid= 1000.00
currency = "Pound"
auctioneer = auctioneer
bidder = bidder
object = object
dateAuction = toDateUTC currentTime
And on to the next error:
• No instance for (IsNumeric Time) arising from the literal ‘10.30’
This comes from start = 10.30. 10.30 is a numeric value but you need a time here. You could specify a time using the functions from DA.Time. However, I think there might actually be another issue here: Your choice defines a number of arguments including start or startArg. However you are not actually using them anywhere. I’m also not sure about the relationship between the fields in the choice argument and the fields in the template. If they are always idenical you don’t need the choice argument. Let’s assume for now that they are not but make sure that we actually use the choice arguments instead of setting the fields to fixed values (however I do recommend understanding how the two relate, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can just delete them from the choice arguments):
create Auction2
with
limit = limitArg
start = startArg
end = endArg
bid= bidArg
currency = currencyArg
auctioneer = auctioneer
bidder = bidder
object = object
dateAuction = toDateUTC currentTime
And at that point we’ve resolved all compile errors!
1 Like
Thanks so much! This was very helpful 
! However, it displays an error for “toDateUTC”. It says:
"resource": "/Users/alicericcardi/auction-contract/daml/Auction.daml",
"owner": "_generated_diagnostic_collection_name_#0",
"severity": 8,
"message": "/Users/alicericcardi/auction-contract/daml/Auction.daml:51:35: error:\n Variable not in scope: toDateUTC : Time -> Date",
"source": "typecheck",
"startLineNumber": 51,
"startColumn": 35,
"endLineNumber": 51,
"endColumn": 44
}
Also I have another error in the part after that. For "Decline" it says that there and indentation or brackets error, but I really don't understand what I should change because I think the indentation is correct and there are no brackets. I'll copy that part here and maybe you know what I should change. (I'm sorry for bothering again, but I have to hand in this auction contract to my professor on the 29th)
`````controller bidder can
MakeABid: ContractId Auction
with
limitArg: Decimal
startArg: Time
endArg: Time
bidArg: Decimal
currencyArg: Text
do
currentTime <- getTime
create Auction
with
limit = limitArg
start = startArg
end = endArg
bid= bidArg
currency = currencyArg
auctioneer = auctioneer
bidder = bidder
object = object
dateAuction = toDateUTC currentTime
Decline: ContractId DeclineBid
with
reason: Text
do
create DeclineBid with ..The error about toDateUTC is due to a missing import. As I suggested above, you need to import DA.Date. To do so add
import DA.Date
after the module Auction2 where line.
As for the other error you are mentioning, I think you have to share your full example. Beyond the fact that you renamed Auction2 back to Auction that code seems to work fine.
For reference this is the full working version that I hacked up Auction2.daml · GitHub
1 Like
Sorry for changing between Auction and Auction2, but I opened two work files so that I can try different things and see what works and what doesn’t. Also, the moment I imported DA.Date even the error on Decline disappeared
Thank you very much and I hope my professor likes this auction contract!
1 Like