Phone Format Rule

[carlclay53]

I modified this script from one I had seen on this forum. I placed it on the "CanWriteField". It doesn't do anything, regardless of what numbers I do or do not enter. Any ideas on why this won't work?

'TWPHONE is a Character field in my addbook Table

dim shared TWPHONE as c
dim phone as c
phone=TWPHONE

select
case len(phone)=0
phone=""
case len(phone)=7
phone=substr(phone,1,3)+"-"+substr (phone,4,7)
case len(phone)=10
phone="("+substr(phone,1,3)+")"+substr(phone,4,3)+"-"+substr(phone,7,4)
case len(phone)=8
TWPHONE=phone
case len(phone)=12
TWPHONE=phone
case len(remspecial(phone)=7).or.len(remspecial(phone)=10).or.len(remspecial(phone)=0)
cancel()
ui_msg_box("Not A Valid Number!","Enter 7 or 10 digits only",UI_ATTENTION_SYMBOL)
case Else
TWPHONE=phone
end select
TWPHONE=phone

[Ted Giles]

DBF or SQL?

[carlclay53]

DBF

[madtowng]

Hi Carl,
For the most part, I don't see any problems with your code.
I surrounded the .or. with spaces, but the code passes syntax.
I did notice that line 19 in the image below is logically incorrect.

Considering this is simple xbasic, dbf or sql shouldn't make a difference at this point.

Gregg
Capture.png

[Ted Giles]

I have found that Select is pretty much a SQL feature.
Try with just CASE

[madtowng]

They're kindof the same.
case statement
select statement

[carlclay53]

I discovered something. If I modify my script like this:

phone=TWPHONE.value
showvar(phone)

When I add a new record the 'showvar' window is blank, and if I edit a record the 'showvar' window shows the old number, not the new number I just entered.

I enter/edit this field on a form in a 'type-in Field'. I feel like I'm missing something simple. Any ideas?

[carlclay53]

CALocklin clued me in on the problem. I should have used 'a_field_value.value' instead of 'TWPHONE'.

From the A5 Help files:

An Alpha Five system variable, A_FIELD_VALUE, is useful in the CanWriteField event. Because the CanWriteField event occurs before the field value you type is actually written to the record buffer, you can use the A_FIELD_VALUE system variable in your script to refer to the value that you typed into the control. If you reference the field by name, you will access the initial value in the field before you typed in a new value.

[madtowng]

We went from code not working to something on a form not working.
Time to share more of the problem.

[Ted Giles]

What are you trying to do? Why a character field for numerics?
What about a MASK?

[carlclay53]

This is what I finally ended up using. It's a starting point for me, but I thought I should post this:

dim phone as c
phone=A_field_value.value

select
case len(phone)=0
phone=""
case len(phone)=7
phone=substr(phone,1,3)+"-"+substr (phone,4,7)
case len(phone)=10
phone="("+substr(phone,1,3)+") "+substr(phone,4,3)+"-"+substr(phone,7,4)

case Else

cancel()
ui_msg_box("Not A Valid Number!","Enter 7 or 10 digits only",UI_ATTENTION_SYMBOL)

end select

A_field_value.value=phone