Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Test for Uniqueness on expression?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Test for Uniqueness on expression?

    I'm trying to test for uniqueness by way of "Value of expression must be unique".

    I have two fields that make up the expression. After entering data into both fields, I don't get a warning message the same as if I had set a single field to Unique.

    Is there a working sample of this in Wiki or somewhere else?
    Regards
    Keith Hubert
    Alpha Guild Member
    London.
    KHDB Management Systems
    Skype = keith.hubert


    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

    Yes, under Validation Rules.
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

      Hi Stan,

      Thanks for coming back to me on this.

      I did try the following before posting and did not get the result I was expecting.
      Validation.PNG
      Is there something else I should have done.

      PS. For this test I did take off the auto increment rule.
      Regards
      Keith Hubert
      Alpha Guild Member
      London.
      KHDB Management Systems
      Skype = keith.hubert


      For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

        For one thing you probably shouldn't have a field named unique.
        The documentation says you put the uniqueness validation on both fields, did you do that?

        Uniqueness Test for Multiple Fields in a Record

        There are two techniques to prevent duplicate values from being entered into multiple fields in a record. This technique also applies to calculated fields.

        Testing each field:

        In the Control Panel select the table and click Table > Edit Field Rules.

        Display the Validations tab.

        For each of the multiple fields:
        Select "Value of expression must be unique" in the Uniqueness test list.

        In the Unique expression field enter an expression that evaluates to a character value and that includes all of the multiple fields that you want to test.

        For example, if you wanted to make sure that the firstname and lastname combination in any record was unique, the Unique expression would be firstname + lastname.

        Suppose you defined a calculated field named fullname that was defined as alltrim(firstname) + " " + alltrim(lastname), then this would be the Unique expression that you define for the firstname and lastname fields.
        There can be only one.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

          Hi Stan,
          Suppose you defined a calculated field named fullname that was defined as alltrim(firstname) + " " + alltrim(lastname), then this would be the Unique expression that you define for the firstname and lastname fields.
          I cant see how you can do a Unique test on a calculate field. All options get greyed out.
          For example, if you wanted to make sure that the firstname and lastname combination in any record was unique, the Unique expression would be firstname + lastname.
          I tried again in AlphaSports with first and last names. Entered Fred Smith, saved record. Entered same again in new record, the record gets saved.

          If you set a single field as Unique, when you tab out of the field, you get an error message before the record is saved. What I was hoping to see was the same thing but after tabbing out of the second field.

          Should I run a script on the OnDepart event of the second field?
          Regards
          Keith Hubert
          Alpha Guild Member
          London.
          KHDB Management Systems
          Skype = keith.hubert


          For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

            In the field rules, do the following for both the Product_ID field and the Description field:
            Field Rules->Validation->Field must be unique: Choose "Value of expression must be unique"
            Then use the following expression:

            alltrim(Poduct_ID)+alltrim(description)

            Or this expression:

            Product_ID-Description-""

            You might run into a different problem though. How many characters are these fields?

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

              I cant see how you can do a Unique test on a calculate field.
              It doesn't say you can. It says

              then this would be the Unique expression that you define for the firstname and lastname fields.
              Same expression for the firstname and lastname fields.

              Salespeople table from AlphaSports with validation rule in place attached.

              salesp.zip
              There can be only one.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                Hi Stan,

                Many thanks for sample, I do appreciate that.

                As the error message given seems to relate to the last field entered, is there a method to change the error message to make it more user friendly?
                Regards
                Keith Hubert
                Alpha Guild Member
                London.
                KHDB Management Systems
                Skype = keith.hubert


                For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                  Not the standard Alpha message for the uniqueness rule. You could do a custom validation using KEY_EXIST().

                  salesp.zip
                  Last edited by Stan Mathews; 10-08-2013, 09:26 AM.
                  There can be only one.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                    Stan, what can I say. Once again you have come to my rescue. That is just perfect.

                    Many many, thanks.
                    Regards
                    Keith Hubert
                    Alpha Guild Member
                    London.
                    KHDB Management Systems
                    Skype = keith.hubert


                    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                      Hi Stan,

                      Made some extra changes to the Code after your great help.

                      Please see Unique_Sample.zip

                      I have tried to make the user go back to empty fields if they try to save.

                      Your comments would be appreciated.
                      Regards
                      Keith Hubert
                      Alpha Guild Member
                      London.
                      KHDB Management Systems
                      Skype = keith.hubert


                      For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                        You have the script running in three places. Two ondepart events on the form and in the table field rules cansaverecord record event. Seems to work for me if I remove it from the table field rules.
                        There can be only one.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Test for Uniqueness on expression?

                          Too many belts and braces. Works a treat without the CanSave. Thanks for the tip.
                          Regards
                          Keith Hubert
                          Alpha Guild Member
                          London.
                          KHDB Management Systems
                          Skype = keith.hubert


                          For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                          Comment

                          Previous template Next
                          Working...
                          X