Creating Sets in XBasic?

[Geoffrey Hollander]

Hi,

Is it possible to create a set (establish a one-to-many relationship) between two individual tables in XBasic? The problem is that I want to do this on the fly with two tables, and linking keys that are selected by the user from within an XBasic script. The table names will constantly change, so they would have to be referred to through global memory variables in the script itself.
After the script has completed, I want to dissolve the relationship linking those two tables, completely � as though it never took place�

Thanks,

Geoff Hollander

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Creating Sets in XBasic?

Hello Geoffrey,

Yes, check out the table methods t.set_create() and t.relation_add().

However, depending on what you are doing you might not have to do this. If you know the parent and the child tables, and know the linking value, why not just open the child, do a query based on the linking value and then display/manipulate the records as needed.


Jim

[Geoffrey Hollander]

RE: Creating Sets in XBasic?

Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I checked the index re: sets in the XBasic manual, but these weren't listed. The reason I can't just set it up is that I will not know thew field and-or table names until the user is already into the script.

I'm using this to run a user-selected suppression list against the user-selected main table (which can also change) and then use this to display the matched supression records as well as those that that match the suppression list, so to delete them from the main table.

The user will select a table to run against the main table duing the script. Once everything has been accomplished, I want to disolve the temporary relationship and "discard" the suppression table.

Thanks again and,

Best regards,

Geoff Hollander

[CALocklin]

RE: Creating Sets in XBasic?

Geoff, try looking up "relation" or "relation_add" in the help files.

(I would check it out specifically but I accidently over-wrote my help file here at the office with one from a distributed app where I replace the A_User.hlp file with one of my own - oops!)

Here's the basics from my 'personal' A5v4Help file:

"Tbl>.relation_add() (Use .relation_drop() to drop the relationship)

Syntax:

relation.link_type = Link Type
relation.index_child = "Linking Index Pointer>
relation.order_parent = Common Linking Expression
relation.ref_integrity = Referential Integrity Type
"Tbl>.relation_add( "Child Table Pointer> )

Description:

Establishes a relationship, or link, between two open tables. The link definition determines the nature of this relationship. It is established through the relation function variable, as shown in the syntax diagram above. The .relation_add() method uses the contents of the relation function variable when constructing the link. The parent table of the link is the table referenced by the object pointer, "Tbl>, and the child table of the link is the table referenced by the object pointer, "Child Table Pointer>. You can use .relation_add() with two or more open tables to form a set design. You can then save this set as a set definition file using the .set_create() method.

[Geoffrey Hollander]

RE: Creating Sets in XBasic?

Hi Cal,

I'm going to give it a try this afternoon and see how it works. Per our discussions of Access and its desirability to have a query pull multi-query-table data without having to be related first, it occurs to me that you could use something like this in a script to esablish a temporary set, query it and then drop it again when finished...

Then again, it would also be nice to be able to attach an Alpha report diectly to a query (or can you?). Anywho, thanks for the input; I think it will solve the problem. I'll let you know.

Best regards,

Geoff