Max Lines and Characters

[f_cruz]

Hello everyone,

Is there a way to find out which mailing address will have the most lines and which line will have the maximum number of characters? I need to create a report of this as a quality control procedure to make sure the addresses in our mail file prints correctly.

Thank you!

[madtowng]

Need more context.
Most lines in what ?
What is the structure of each line?
What is the source of the data?

[f_cruz]

We are in the mailing industry and work with comma-delimitted and dbase files. What I am trying to achieve is: print a report, showing me one record which uses the maximum number of characters and one record that uses the maximum number of lines. The end result will be one report with 2 records and if we have multiple segments, one report with 2 records per segment. We currently use a different program to do this but unfortunately we are running into issues due to it not being 64bit compatible. For example: Maximum number of lines required is 5 SEE RECORD # 1 Maximum number of characters required is 40 SEE RECORD # 672 REC#: 1 maximum _LINES LINE1 P1 T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099 LINE2 # LINE3 John Doe LINE4 ABC Company LINE5 LINE6 LINE7 LINE8 123 Any Street LINE9 Anytown, US 12345-6789 LINE10 LINE11 0027012345611460000103079308231 LINE12 00001 _______________________________________________________________________________________ REC#: 672 maximum CHARS LINE1 P1 T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099 LINE2 # LINE3 Jane Doe LINE4 LINE5 LINE6 LINE7 LINE8 1234567 Any Street, Bldg 456, Ste 987654 LINE9 Anytown, US 12345-6789 LINE10 LINE11 0027012345611460000103079308231 LINE12 00672 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you!

[madtowng]

This is a rough way to show it, but it looks like a record begins with
a line containing : P1 T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099
followed by a line with a #.
The record appears to end with the record number, although that line could be taken as a postal code,
unless each record has 12 lines.

Your data is fine, but I would rather see the actual data (I'm guessing in a file or potentially a variable).

[f_cruz]

I have attached a sample file of what the data looks like. We use LINE1 through LINE12 because that's what I old software used to recognize.

LINE1 = ENDORSEMENT LINE
LINE2 = BREAK MARK
LINE3 = NAME
LINE4 = TITLE
LINE5 = COMPANY
LINE6 = ADDRESS LINE 3
LINE7 = ADDRESS LINE 2
LINE8 = DELIVERY ADDRESS
LINE9 = CITY, STATE ZIP
LINE10 = COUNTRY
LINE11 = IMB DIGITS
LINE12 = SEQUENTIAL NUMBER

Thank you!

[armasoft]

Have a look at https://documentation.alphasoftware....S%20Method.xml for maximum line length...

dim tbl as p
tbl = table.open("d:\downloads\sample.dbf")
tbl.records_get()
tbl.field_statistics("line1",ans)
?ans
= Count = 25
First = "P1  T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099         "
GreatestLength = 36
Last = "                                             "
Maximum = "P1  T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099         "
Minimum = "                                             "
​

You'd need to measure & store the max value for each line then find the largest number returned.

[armasoft]

Have a look at https://documentation.alphasoftware....S%20Method.xml for maximum line length...

dim tbl as p
tbl = table.open("d:\downloads\sample.dbf")
tbl.records_get()
tbl.field_statistics("line1",ans)
?ans
= Count = 25
First = "P1  T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099         "
GreatestLength = 36
Last = "                                             "
Maximum = "P1  T1********AUTO**MIXED AADC 07099         "
Minimum = "                                             "
​

You'd need to measure & store the max value for each line then find the largest number returned.

[armasoft]

You could use something like

dim most_lines as n = 0
dim tbl as p
tbl=table.open("d:\downloads\sample.dbf")
tbl.records_get()
tbl.fetch_first()
while (.not. tbl.fetch_eof())
    my_lines = 0
    for i = 1 to 12
        IF eval("len(alltrim(tbl.line"+i+"))>0") THEN
            my_lines=my_lines+1
        end if
    next
    most_lines=max(most_lines,my_lines)
    tbl.fetch_next()
end while
msgbox("Most lines is " + most_lines)​

To report most lines populated - returns 8 from your sample.

[f_cruz]

Thank you Armasoft!

The code worked great to show me the maximum number of lines. Is there a way to exclude "LINE2, LINE11 and LINE12 from the eval? I know I can do "for i = 1 to 10" but how do I exclude LINE2? How would I go about getting the maximum number of characters as well? And is there a method as to how to select those two records max records so I can print a report?

Thank you!

[armasoft]

dim most_lines as n = 0
dim tbl as p
tbl=table.open("d:\downloads\sample.dbf")
tbl.records_get()
tbl.fetch_first()
while (.not. tbl.fetch_eof())
my_lines = 0
IF len(alltrim(tbl.line1))>0" THEN
my_lines=my_lines+1
end if
​for i = 3 to 10
IF eval("len(alltrim(tbl.line"+i+"))>0") THEN
my_lines=my_lines+1
end if
next
most_lines=max(most_lines,my_lines)
tbl.fetch_next()
end while
msgbox("Most lines is " + most_lines)​

Skips line 2 and stops at 10.

Do you mean maximum number of characters in a line (see #7) or maximum number of characters in a record (lines 1 + 3-10)

[f_cruz]

Thanks again Armasoft. Although I am getting an error. See below. What am I doing wrong? Once I get this working correctly, is there a method as to how to select those two records max records so I can print a report?

image.png

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Remove the = sign in front of the word count, line 6.

[f_cruz]

After removing the = sign, I get the error below.

image.png

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Check this out in the documentation

https://documentation.alphasoftware.com/documentation/pages/Ref/Api/Objects/Database/Table/TABLE.FIELD_STATISTICS%20Method.xml

Oops, I see this has already been referenced.
The message is telling you the problem. You have not declared "ans" in your code.

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

dim most_lines as n = 0
dim tbl as p
tbl=table.open("d:\Downloads\sample.dbf")
tbl.records_get()

'initialize the "ans" dot variable
ans.count = 25
tbl.field_statistics("line1",ans)

ui_msg_box("Ans",\
"First: " + ans.first + CRLF()+\
"Last: " + ans.last + crlf()+\
"Maximum: " + ans.Maximum + crlf()+\
"Minimum: " + ans.minimum)

tbl.close()

​