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Lookup Value Of A Time Field

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    Lookup Value Of A Time Field

    How can you retrieve the value of a time field? There is no lookupt function. I need to calculate the number of minutes between a stored time and the current time.

    Thanks!

    #2
    Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

    Originally posted by Alan Lee View Post
    How can you retrieve the value of a time field? There is no lookupt function. I need to calculate the number of minutes between a stored time and the current time.

    Thanks!
    You can write your own lookup for time, or you can tell us the context - form, report, etc, and we can give you some more ideas.

    You may just need to have the stored table in part of your set and then you'll have the value in the time field available to you for calculation.
    Al Buchholz
    Bookwood Systems, LTD
    Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

    Occam's Razor - KISS
    Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
    Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
    When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
    "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
    Albert Einstein

    http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

      Originally posted by Alan Lee View Post
      How can you retrieve the value of a time field? There is no lookupt function. I need to calculate the number of minutes between a stored time and the current time.

      Thanks!
      just use the generic lookup() function.

      it can return a value of any type.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

        duh! I didn't see that. I will check it out. Thanks!

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

          LOOKUP() does not return time. From the interactive window:

          DIM T AS P
          DIM A AS T
          T=TABLE.open("PICKERS")
          ?typeof(T.LAST_PUNCH)
          = "T"

          ?typeof(A)
          = "T"

          ?lookup("pickers","PICKER='AL'","F_name")
          = "ALAN "

          ?LOOKUP("PICKERS","PICKER='AL'","LAST_PUNCH")
          = <No data returned>

          T.FETCH_FIRST()
          A=T.LAST_PUNCH
          ?A
          = 05/09/2008 03:17:55 56 pm

          ?T.LAST_PUNCH
          = 05/09/2008 03:17:55 56 pm

          ?TYPEOF(T.LAST_PUNCH)
          = "T"

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

            Hi Alan,
            That seems to point back to your index "Last_Punch" - how is it defined?
            Robin

            Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

              last_punch is not an index, it is the lookup_expression. per the help file "The name of a field in the Lookup_Table or a valid expression which may contain one or more fields." The syntax is :

              Lookup_Value as A = LOOKUP( Lookup_Table as C, Filter as C, Lookup_Expression as C )

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                last_punch is a field of data type t. i need to look that up.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                  It's a bug.

                  lookup() is meant to return any type.
                  It does not return type T.

                  For now, use:
                  table.external_record_content_get()
                  Last edited by G Gabriel; 05-17-2008, 12:31 PM.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                    I have reported it. I wonder how long it will take to get it fixed? Was it, is it a bug in V8?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                      Originally posted by Alan Lee View Post
                      LOOKUP() does not return time. From the interactive window:

                      DIM T AS P
                      DIM A AS T
                      T=TABLE.open("PICKERS")
                      ?typeof(T.LAST_PUNCH)
                      = "T"

                      ?typeof(A)
                      = "T"

                      ?lookup("pickers","PICKER='AL'","F_name")
                      = "ALAN "

                      ?LOOKUP("PICKERS","PICKER='AL'","LAST_PUNCH")
                      = <No data returned>

                      T.FETCH_FIRST()
                      A=T.LAST_PUNCH
                      ?A
                      = 05/09/2008 03:17:55 56 pm

                      ?T.LAST_PUNCH
                      = 05/09/2008 03:17:55 56 pm

                      ?TYPEOF(T.LAST_PUNCH)
                      = "T"

                      thanks.

                      it looks like you have identified a bug in lookup().

                      we will fix it, but in the mean time there is a trivial work around:


                      ?ctodt(lookup("pl_orders","orderid=10330","\"\"+orderdate"))
                      = 11/16/1994 12:00:00 00 am


                      in other words, instead of having the lookup function return a time value, have it return a time value as a string.
                      in the above example, my return value is: "" + orderdate
                      alpha five will automatically cast this into a string. eg. "12/1/2005 12:34 pm"

                      then use ctodt() to turn the value back into a time value.

                      you could create your own udf:

                      Code:
                      function lookup_t as t (table as c, filter as c , expression as c )
                      	lookup_t  = ctodt(lookup(table,filter, "'' +" + expression))
                      end function
                      having done that, from the interactive window:

                      Code:
                      ?lookup_t("pl_orders","orderid=10330","orderdate")
                      = 11/16/1994 12:00:00 00 am

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                        Selwyn:
                        ?ctodt(lookup("pl_orders","orderid=10330","\"\"+orderdate"))
                        This part is very slick!
                        I did try few similar work-arounds but it didn't occur to me to try this one and thought table.external_content_get() is just as good.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                          I guess the "\"\"+, which adds "" or nothing, forces the return value type to a character.

                          Thanks Selwyn! A true testimony to your, and Alpha Software as a whole for that matter, commitment to your product and customer base.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                            Alan,
                            Sorry I had not checked the syntax for lookup() myself - I was thinking more along the lines of lookupc(). Which I will now go and check too...
                            Robin

                            Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Lookup Value Of A Time Field

                              Originally posted by Alan Lee View Post
                              I guess the "\"\"+, which adds "" or nothing, forces the return value type to a character.

                              Thanks Selwyn! A true testimony to your, and Alpha Software as a whole for that matter, commitment to your product and customer base.
                              Exactly on both statements. See this page in the help.
                              Tim Kiebert
                              Eagle Creek Citrus
                              A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

                              Comment

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