Complex Conditional Statements

[Ronald Dodge]

Can I use ANDs and ORs in the conditional (AKA Criteria) portion of the If, Then, [Elseif, [Else]] End If group of statements?

[forskare]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

I believe you can. You could give it a try.

kenn

[Ronald Dodge]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

I have by including the word "or" in between 2 expressions, and it returned subelement not found.

Example:

If Var1 "" Var2 or Var3 "" Var4 Then

and it returns:

Var2 or Var3 subelement not found.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ron,

In Xbasic Reference there's a chapter on Language Reference. In it you'll find a section on Operator References.

OR
AND
NOT

and others

must be delimited with periods

.OR.
.AND.
.NOT.

ok?

-- tom

[Al Buchholz]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ronald

Are you using the expression builder to help you?

See attached image.

By clicking on the x-y button (red arrow - #1) you get the expression builder (white arrow - #2) which tells you the type of result that you should have (in this case logical).

Fill in the expression using the buttons that have some of the possibilities or the list box with the field names through variables. (note purple arrows)

The area indicated by the blue arrow - #3 will have the results of the expression. This area will have

"invalid or incomplete expression"

until the expression has the proper syntax. At that point you will get a result and a type. The type must match the expected type that is shown by the white arrow.

At that point the syntax is correct and the expression can be save. The application level logic can then begin.

Then use the record navigation buttons (green arrow) to step through your data to see how each record evaluates.

Alpha will help you if you use the tool and build the expression in manageable steps. Start simple and then add complexity.

Hope that helps.

[Ronald Dodge]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

I had looked through the Table of Contents for this and I also looked for it in the index, but I did not see it listed in either location, and I also looked in other places within the manual, but no mention of any of these operands.

[Ronald Dodge]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

I am not using the Expression Builder as I am coding directly in Xbasic. For debugging purposes, I have found it easiest to put in the line of code:

Debug(1)

When I want to be able to step through the code. It doesn't seem to want to go into execution as I'm in the code, so I have to put in the Debug code, where I want go into stepping mode. When I'm done stepping through and looking at the results of the various variables, I just press F5, but I also found pressing F7 doesn't interrupt the code as it's stated on Page 420 of the Xbasic Reference Manual at the bottom of the page.

As you might notice, I rely on proper documentations quite heavily, since there is no one else that works with me other than what help I may get over the internet, such as the users of this forum, which has been quite a bit of help up to this point of time.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ok. I'm surprised there's no entry in the Index to the CHM help file, too. -- tom

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ron,

If you are going to be doing a lot of Xbasic coding, without relying on genies or the expression builder you will need to spend a lot of time in the Xbasic Reference Manual. The chapter "Language Reference" contains the basics, including the materials you'd need to use the OR and AND operands correctly.

I find the Alpha Five Help file (CHM) version to be very useful, and generally well indexed. If you're working with a printed copy instead of the CHM digital version I recommend you switch over.

-- tom

[Ronald Dodge]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

and where is this Language Reference Chapter? I don't even see that listed. The closest that I saw listed was "Elements of the Xbasic Language", which is only 2 pages, 71 & 72.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

It's in the Xbasic Reference Manual.

The attached image shows the relevant portion of the TOC in the CHM file I mentioned.

-- tom

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ron,

I think maybe I owe you an apology.

I was unaware the Xbasic Reference section of the CHM was organized differently than the Xbasic Reference Manual. I've been talking about the CHM file. Available as a download (a large download) at the Alpha Software Learning Center. I use it exclusively since it combines in one place all the scattered "Manuals" which were originally shipped with Alpha Five. I apologize for the confusion and any frustration I've caused.

-- tom

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ron, if you're using the original reference materials (that shipped with Alpha Five) you'll find the explanation for the logical operators in the TOC of the User's Guide in the Chapter on Functions & Expressions. Look for the section on Logical Operators, beginning at pg 309 -- tom

[Ronald Dodge]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Yes, I was talking about the references that's originally shipped with A5V5, but since the last message I left, I went online, and downloaded the list of reference which has 1500 pages in it. I found the info in there, but now would like to have a way to be able to call that directly from the help menu in Alpha 5.

It has been very frustrating not finding what I'm looking for, such as in this case, I was thinking that these operands written as they are were pretty much exclusive to XBasic with about the only other exception might be when writing in SQL. That doesn't mean they aren't used in other parts of the program, but normally when used in other parts, it's more GUI like than text like in most cases. This is what had me think that these operands would have been listed within XBasic Reference Manual.

Sorry if I may have seemed like I snapped earlier. I normally use different parts of the program for different types of tasks. One of the reasons why I seem to lean more heavily on XBasic is cause when I have tried to use things that's intended to be more automatic, it's also created issues that I didn't like, such as in Access, when using bound forms, either the field must be 100% validated or 100% of the time not validated. Here's the issue I ran into that. Most fields needs to be validated to weed out human errors to a large extent. However, if it's setup to be validated, and the user wants to go to the help section, back out of the form, or reset the form via the mouse button, validation would still take place and in some cases would cause the form to error out, which is not so user friendly in these situations. To over come this issue in Access, I had to unbind the forms, create my own custom validation codes, and run things from that stand point of view.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Complex Conditional Statements

Ron,

The Alpha Five Help file (CHM version) is supposed to match the WebHelp, though it lags a bit timewise. The online WebHelp is the most up to date. Both are available at the Learning Center.

Many of us load the CHM and then minimize it so that it's available during a development session. It's more comprehensive than the F1 help you'd get while using the program. I suppose you could rename the CHM to match the filename of the built in help file... but it would probably no longer context sensitive...

-- tom