Concatenate 3 fields to one field

[J.R. Noe]

I have found some concatenate posts on the message board but each one i try does not work, so i know the issue is on my side.
I have a Name_Last, Name_First and Name_MI field and i would like to concatenate these into a bound field called Name_Full. I have tried a few different ones, and put it in different places, such as the AfterDialogValidate (just before the save script), but nothing works.
Also, does anyone think would it be better to just have MySQL perform this with a trigger, concatenate the 3 fields into the Name_Full field. If so, what is the best way to do that.
Thanks for any help.

[lvasic]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

I hide the full name field and put this in the calculated expression. Upper(NameFirst) + Upper(NameMiddle) + Upper(NameLast) + Upper(NameNick)

You can add spaces. For what I'm doing I don't want the spaces. I use this as an internal column. In other tables I use a view to build the full name.

[J.R. Noe]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

That works, thank you very much. I overlooked the calculated expression option.

[J.R. Noe]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

This works great with a new record, but if a record is edited, the changes are not made in the Name_Full field. How can i make it handle updates?

[chadbrown]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

You would need to put the calculation in the can update record area then as well.

[lvasic]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

Here's an example of the CanUpdateRecord:

function CanUpdateRecord as v (DataSubmitted as P, Args as p, PageVariables as p, Result as p )
with PageVariables
Result.Cancel = .f.
Result.ErrorHTML = ""

datasubmitted.UserIdMod = session.UserID
datasubmitted.DateMod = Now()

end with
end function

[J.R. Noe]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

Where is the CanUpdateRecord in the dialog? I looked inserver and client side.

[chadbrown]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

Sorry didn't know it was a dialog

[J.R. Noe]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

I should have included that. Sorry Chad. Is it not saving updates because the field is not identified as being dirty? I am just stabbing in the dark here, trying to figure out a solution.

[Pat Bremkamp]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

The trigger approach only works when you add or change the table (depending on which trigger you choose) and you can only have one trigger per type per table, so is this important enough to use up your triggers?

You might try building the concatinated name in your select statement or base the dialog on a view that includes the concatinated field. I haven't tried it but it seems like it should work.

[madtowng]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

'========================================================================================================
'IMPORTANT: If your event handler modifies a value in the e.dataSubmitted object (and that field has NOT
'been edited by the user), you MUST explicitly add the field to the e.dirtyColumns value yourself.
This text is found in the dialogValidate server-side even

'For example, assume that you want to set the Company field to 'Alpha' and the 'Qty' field in row 1 of a repeating section
'regardless of whether the user edited the value or not:
'e.dataSubmitted.COMPANY = "alpha"
'e.dataSubmitted.QTY_A5INSTANCE2 = "2"
'e.dirtyColumns = e.dirtyColumns + crlf()+ "COMPANY" + crlf() + "QTY_A5INSTANCE2"
'========================================================================================================

[J.R. Noe]

Re: Concatenate 3 fields to one field

Thanks Gregg, that makes sense, and thanks Pat, good point about the trigger. Not going to waste a trigger on this.