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Order on child table in a set - catch 22

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    Order on child table in a set - catch 22

    In a set I have a one-to-many relationship from the primary table to a child table. I want to define an order expression on the child table which A5 creates for me by using a statement like: str(N1,6,0)+str(N2,6,1), where N1 and N2 are two numeric data items in the child table.
    However, when I try to exit and save the order expression, A5 gives me the following error message: "If you specify a child order expression, the parent key must evaluate to a character value. Parent key type in N."
    Nowhere in the set edit tools can I find a place to change the key on the set parent table. So, I attempted to change the order expression on the child table to a numeric expression like: N1*10000+N2. Guess what, I got exactly the same error message.
    Any ideas on how to avoid this problem? I am using Alpha Five version 5 build 1322-1017.

    #2
    RE: Order on child table in a set - catch 22

    Brett,

    I wonder if the 'parent key' which is referenced in the error message you're seeing might refer to the link expression that ties your parent table to the child table (and not the current sort order of the parent table) ?

    -- tom

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      #3
      RE: Order on child table in a set - catch 22

      what is the linking field i the parent table?

      is it a numeric field?

      if so, then edit the set, and change the linking key on the parent table side to an expression, and enter an expression that convertst the numeric linking key to a character key.

      e.g. alltrim(str(keyfield,10,0))

      the reason that this is required is that if you are multi-level sorting on numeric fields, then the fields have to be converted to character values becasue otherwise a5 just evaluates the sort key as if it were a numeric expression.

      for example, if you have a 3 level sort:

      num1+num2+num3

      and if num1, num2 and num3 were numeric values, of say 100, 200, and 50

      a5 would evaluate this sort key as 350, when infact, the correct sort key is

      10020050

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        #4
        RE: Order on child table in a set - catch 22

        Thanks, Tom. Yes, you are 100 percent right of course. I mistakenly thought the error message was referring to the primary index on the parent table (??) when it meant to point me to the link index.

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