[Taginfo-dev] Question and feature request: Splitting values separated with semicolons into two tag-value pairs?

[Jochen Topf]

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 09:47:53PM +0200, Stefan Keller wrote:
> Sometimes one wants to tag for example a restaurant also being a pub.
> Then a problem arises when one realizes that both are values of tag
> "amenity".
> 
> There are two choices for dealing with this:
> 1. inserting two tag-value pairs ("amenity=restaurant" and "amenity=pub)

That can't be done. Its not an editor issue. The database does not allow
the same key twice.

> 2. choosing one tag with two values separated by a semicolon (or
> something else...:-<), so: "amenity=restaurant;pub"
> 
> The current editors JOSM and Potlatch2 seem to allow explicitly only
> solution 2 ("amenity=restaurant;pub"). Unfortunately without control
> about the delimiter (semicolon? comma?).
> 
> => First question: Is this current "state of the art"?

No. This is often done, but almost no tool actually takes this into
account when working with the data.

> => Second question and feature request: Should'nt Taginfo split values
> delimited with semicolon (and commas?) into two tag-value pairs?

No.

Taginfo is a low-level tool. It shows you the way the data looks, not some
way it can be converted to. Actually there are numerous cases where the
semicolon business has introduced totally wrong data, like tages with
"oneway=yes;no;1" or so. Taginfo would not be able to find those cases
any more.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298