Can't get a " & " in an expression

[Gary Phillips]

The following expression is part of a case statement:
alltrim(Fname1)+" "+alltrim(Lname1)+" & "+alltrim(Fname2)+" "+alltrim(Lname2)

I want the ampersand (&) to print as an & But this evaluates to
John Smith _Mary Jones

If I use chr(38),which I think is the ascii value, like this: alltrim(Fname1)+" "+alltrim(Lname1)+" "+chr(38)+alltrim(Fname2)+" "+alltrim(Lname2)

I get John Smith Mary Smith

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

I don't have v9 but it works in v8 in the interactive. Did you try it there?

fname1 = "Tom"
lname1 = "Smith"
fname2 = "Bobby"
lname2 = "Jones"


? alltrim(Fname1)+" "+alltrim(Lname1)+" & "+alltrim(Fname2)+" "+alltrim(Lname2)
= "Tom Smith & Bobby Jones"

[Gary Phillips]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Yes I agree it does work as expected in interactive but the evaluation of my cal field expression is as described _ not &

Now seeing that it did work in interactive I went forward using that calc field in my report and the report did print just fine using & rather than _.

Guess I should have tried that first

Thanks for your assistance

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Must be a quirk in the expression builder.

[gaby_h]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Gary, try this: Alltrim(First_Name)+" && "+alltrim(Last_Name)
(2 ampersands)

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

? chr(38)
= "&"

[CALocklin]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

The following expression is part of a case statement:
alltrim(Fname1)+" "+alltrim(Lname1)+" & "+alltrim(Fname2)+" "+alltrim(Lname2)

I want the ampersand (&) to print as an & But this evaluates to
John Smith _Mary Jones

If I use chr(38),which I think is the ascii value, like this: alltrim(Fname1)+" "+alltrim(Lname1)+" "+chr(38)+alltrim(Fname2)+" "+alltrim(Lname2)

I get John Smith Mary Smith

You want this "to print" where? It works fine in a ui_msg_box() command.


FWIW: My best guess is that it needs to be "escaped" with the backslash character:
" \& "

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Is no one reading his intermediate post?

went forward using that calc field in my report and the report did print just fine using & rather than _.

The only problem seemed to be that he wasn't seeing the ampersand in the expression builder as he was developing the expression.

I think.

[CALocklin]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Well, I know I read the first line of it. Does that count? :o

[csda1]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

The conversion of the & ampersand to an _ underscore is a consequence of the Windows I/O associated with buttons and hot keys. Some places in Alpha uses I/O that displays it and sometimes not. I believe XDialog static text does show ampersand, and dynamic text does not. But in general, it does print out as the character string, no matter what it looks like on screen.

[Bill Parker]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Continuing down the xdialog path, an & in both static and dynamic text requires escaping with another &, otherwise it displays as an underscore. So in xdialog text use && if you want & to display.

(I had a note on my desk for some time to research this problem in one of my routines and this thread finally got me to do it!)

Bill.

[csda1]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

Hi Bill,

So in xdialog text use && if you want & to display.

I believe in cases where you use a &&, that it creates an ampersand with an underscore, not necessarily the desired result. But off the top of my head, it seems that Xdialog {'some text} vs {Text=variablename} vs static text vs text in a text control box all act different with single and double ampersands.

In a similar fasion, XDialog treats some ASCII characters (e.g. {, }, or ! and probably others) a bit differently depending upon what object is used.

It would be nice if XDialog had an escape character, but I don't think it really does.

[Bill Parker]

Re: Can't get a " & " in an expression

I believe in cases where you use a &&, that it creates an ampersand with an underscore

Not in my testing

ui_dlg_box("test",<<%dlg%
test&&test;
<OK>
%dlg%)

Bill.