teal_slice object fully describes filter state and can be used to create,
modify, and delete a filter state. A teal_slice contains a number of common fields
(all named arguments of teal_slice), some of which are mandatory, but only
dataname and either varname or expr must be specified, while the others have default
values.
Setting any of the other values to NULL means that those properties will not be modified
(when setting an existing state) or that they will be determined by data (when creating new a new one).
Entire object is FilterState class member and can be accessed with FilterState$get_state().
A teal_slice can come in two flavors:
teal_slice_var -
this describes a typical interactive filter that refers to a single variable, managed by the FilterState class.
This class is created when varname is specified.
The object retains all fields specified in the call. id can be created by default and need not be specified.
teal_slice_expr -
this describes a filter state that refers to an expression, which can potentially include multiple variables,
managed by the FilterStateExpr class.
This class is created when expr is specified.
dataname and anchored are retained, fixed is set to TRUE, id becomes mandatory, title
remains optional, while other arguments are disregarded.
A teal_slice can be passed FilterState/FilterStateExpr constructors to instantiate an object.
It can also be passed to FilterState$set_state to modify the state.
However, once a FilterState is created, only the mutable features can be set with a teal_slice:
selected, keep_na and keep_inf.
Special consideration is given to two fields: fixed and anchored.
These are always immutable logical flags that default to FALSE.
In a FilterState instantiated with fixed = TRUE the features
selected, keep_na, keep_inf cannot be changed.
Note that a FilterStateExpr is always considered to have fixed = TRUE.
A FilterState instantiated with anchored = TRUE cannot be removed.