Posting Clarification

[forskare]

I'm not sure if the posting operation is working as it should. I have 4 character fields (C1 - C4) which I want to combine into one which is in another table, T1. IOW the new character field is in T1 and character fields C1 - C4 are in T2. I used the posting Operation and posted C1 into the T1-C1 field. When I tried to post C2, C3 or C4 to T1-C1 by 'adding to it' nothing happened, no posting took place. If I select 'by Replacing', then it posts, replacing the text. What is the proper behavior? I could not determine that by reading the documentation.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Posting Clarification

"Addition" and "Subtraction" posts are intended for numeric data. Sounds like you're trying to concatenate character data.

Two alternatives for you:

a) use a "replace" post, but post the concatenated field values in one step by using an expression to define the value to post, instead of single field.

b) alternatively, create a temp set using a one to one link, and then define an update operation that updates the target field with the concatenated string.

Remember to create a good backup of the target table before running batch operations like these.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Posting Clarification

The genie does suggest that you can use "Adding to it" for character fields. Will have to experiment.

Later: Seems to work fine here. The xbasic behind the operation reveals that it simply concatenates the current field value with the value being posted.

Later still: It appears to me that the "Adding to it" option was intended for memo fields. When using character fields they is no way to add to it (a character field) without trimming the spaces in the field being posted to, and that isn't an option available.

Tom's comments about concatenation and replacing are your best option.

[MoGrace]

Re: Posting Clarification

What if you tried subtracting the character fields? The minus sign might concentate the fields...

(Just a joke really - haven't tried it)

[forskare]

Re: Posting Clarification

Greetings Gentlemen,

This is what I did to accomplish the task, it to less than 5 minutes.

I concatenated Ci and C2 by subtracting C3 from C4 and adding C3 and C4 to T1-C1. (Humor added for Robin) We all need humor, even with the most serious of this stuff.

No, I thought about Tom's suggestion and no doubt, coming from Tom, it would work. Stan's efforts produced the quick and easy way, changing the character fields to memo fields and then doing the post operation. That was slick. From changing the fields to doing each operation, less than 5 minutes overall.

Thank you all three.