Marking a record based on the content of a field

[Robin Sculthorpe]

Hi,

I am having trouble with an Action Script for a field named "STOPDATE".
Based on whether the field is filled in or not, I desire the record to
be marked or unmarked. If STOPDATE is blank, the record should be unmarked. If the record is edited to contain a stop date, then the record should be marked. I have tried an Action Script using the OnWroteField and the SELECT action. The action has 2 choices, which I stated as the following with associated In-line Xbasic: isblank ("STOPDATE"), Parentform.Unmark_Record() and .not.isblank ("STOPDATE"), Parentform.Mark_Record(). Nothing happens when I edit the record to contain a stop date in the field. (The field is a character field with a mask to enter as MM-YR, but I don't think that would be causing the problem.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am trying to slowly learn how to use Alpha 5 (I have been a long-term user of Alpha 4 and greatly appreciate all the information I have been able to glean from this forum). Much thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Robin Sculthorpe

[Stan Mathews]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

There are several discussions of "blank date" concerns available from the search feature of this board. The answer below covers the answer

Msg ID: 44755
Subject: RE: Blank Date Search
Author: Ira J Perlow
Date: 07-26-2001 08:21
File:

Ron,

The best way is to use an expression like

trim(cdate(install))==""

The normal way would be to use an expression like

isblank("install")

but that expression fails sometimes within A5. {} is a blank date, but sometimes it comes out as { / / } when referencing fields, and that is not considered blank (even though it is).

Regards,

Ira J. Perlow
Computer Systems Design & Associates
[email protected]

[Robin Sculthorpe]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Stan,

My field is a character field, not a date field. Does it make a difference whether or not literals are stored in the field?

Thanks again,

Robin

[Stan Mathews]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Guess I didn't read far enough through your post.

I don't believe the mask is stored in the field, so that shouldn't be the problem.

Sorry I can't ofer any more help.

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Unless you have check the box "Do Not store Mask Literals in Field" A5 may well think there is a "-" (hyphen ) in your blank field.

Try
remspecial(STOPDATE)=""
as your expression for a blank field, may work.

Finian

[Robin Sculthorpe]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Thanks to all for your suggestions, but I still can't get this to work as a field rule OnWrote event. However it will work as an Action Script at the Form level for an OnSave event. This is the Inline XBasic I used:

if isblank(remspecial("STOPDATE"))
parentform.Unmark_record()
end if
if .not.isblank(remspecial("STOPDATE"))
parentform.Mark_record()
end if
end

Since none of my end users would be using the default form anyway, I assume this is an acceptable approach to solve this problem.

Again, much thanks.

Robin Sculthorpe

[forskare]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Robin,

I' curious, I see you're using

if .not.isblank(remspecial("STOPDATE"))

Shouldn't it be

if(notisblank(remspecial("STOPDATE")))

The xbasic manual doesn't show using isnotblank the way you're using it. But then, there's more than one way to skin the cat.

just wondering,

kenn

[Robin Sculthorpe]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

Kenn,

The .not.isblank expression works in my case. I think I came up with the expression that way, because that is the way I would have done it in Alpha 4.

Robin

[CALocklin]

RE: Marking a record based on the content of a fie

There's more than one way to skin a cat....

There is function ISNOTBLANK( fieldname ) (see below)
or
you can also use .not. isblank( fieldname )


Syntax:

LogicalValue = ISNOTBLANK( FieldName )

Description:

Returns TRUE if FieldName contains a value.

Examples:

� ISNOTBLANK("Company")==> .T. if Company contains "Alpha Software"
� ISNOTBLANK("Company")==> .F. if Company contains ""