prevent duplicate key field in a repeating section of a UX

[Farzadalpa]

Hello'
I have repeating section in an Ux. There is a field of the repeating section which must be unique .The control for this field is a Drop-down-combo-edit .Is there a practical way to do this ?
I have tried checking the value of the filed against other rows in the change event .I can catch the duplicate field and flag it using the setCustomValidity() but I would like to put back the previous value of the field incase of duplication.
I can not find away to to record the previous value. I tried to save the old value in Onfocus event of the field , but it does not work because the value changes when the Como-box is clicked before change & focus events.
I apricate any help or ideas .
Thanks ,
Nick

[Russell Craycraft]

Can you use a DISTINCT?

[madtowng]

When are you checking for uniqueness? (as the field loses focus or when the data is submitted ?) ?
Are you checking against uncommitted values in the ux, or against the table of saved values ?
Finally, I'm a bit confused. If you're using a dropdown, isn't that going to provide values that already exist ?

[Farzadalpa]

Thank you,
I am checking after lose of focus and before submit. I am checking the key against both new uncommitted records and the ones that were loaded from a table .The repeating section is populated from a table, then user can update, add, or delete the rows(records) and submit
after all rows are edited .there could be up to 4 rows in the repeating section . A field in each row is unique key and this field value must be 1 of 4 possible values , hence the dropdown selects the value for the field.
I have all I could think of with no good solution .I can even figure out what HTML tag Alpha uses to markup the combo-box .Could not field input element does not have 'list' attribute nor I could find a <select> .
Thanks again,
Nick

[madtowng]

the blur event (lose focus) uses the e point which should give you the ability to get the values from each of the repeating rows.
I would expect that if you combine that with a simple database query you should be able to tell if the newest row's value is unique.

I can help more, but would need a copy of the ux, and some sample data.
The more information we have, the better the chances are that we can provide a solution that does what you want.

I have to go into the office now, but seeing as how I have no life, I check the board often and work on things throughout the day.

[Farzadalpa]

Thanks you

[madtowng]

Does that mean you got it working as expected ?

[Farzadalpa]

I decided I could not prevent the duplication at the time of data entry , so I would just set the costume error massage when a duplicate is entered and prevent the submission as long as the data integrity is not complete.
Thank you & have nice day,
Nick

[madtowng]

I've been able to identify a duplicated key, and force the user back into that column, but I don't get the expected message in red letters.

[Russell Craycraft]

Can you send an image or a short video of what you are trying to accomplish?

[madtowng]

For myself, I like to find ways to do things people think can't be done.
While doing this, I thought I had things working, but apparently I'm missing something that should be executing
the e.javascript code.

function validate_repeatCol as p (e as p)
dim errorfound as n = -1
validate_repeatCol.hasError = .t.
' debug(1)
'Sample validation function.
'Data for the current row is available in 'e.data'.
'For example, e.data.firstname, e.data.lastname, e.data.dateOfBirth, e.data.quantity.

'IMPORTANT: All data values in e.data are character type. You can use the convert_type() function
'to convert the data to other data types. For example convert_type(e.data.quantity,"N")

'TIP: Your Xbasic code can send a Javascript response to the browser by setting the 'e.javascript' property.

'if e.data.repeatCol = "" then
' validate_repeatCol.hasError = .t.
' validate_repeatCol.errorText = "repeatCol cannot be blank."
'end if
if e.data.repeatcol = "" then
validate_repeatCol.hasError = .f.
exit function
end if
for n = 1 to 5
if n <> convert_type(e.data.BLURROW,"N") then
if eval("e.data.repeatcol"+"_a5instance"+remspecial(str(n))) = e.data.repeatCol then
debug(1)
errorfound = n
'e.javascript = "alert('You must choose a unique value to continue');"+"{dialog.Object}.setFocus('REPEATCOL',"+ remspecial(e.data.blurrow)+");"
e.javascript = "alert('You must choose a unique value to continue');"
' e.javascript = e.javascript +"alert('You must choose a unique value to continue');"
validate_repeatCol.errorText = "Value already in row "+remspecial(str(errorfound))
end if
end if
next n
if errorfound < 0 then
validate_repeatCol.hasError = .f.
end if


end function

[Farzadalpa]

Thanks, I will go over the code and see if I can
get it to work for me. I will also try to make video
explaining what I like to do.
Thanks again,
Nick