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The case for Case()

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    #1

    The case for Case()

    I feel compelled to write this message for few reasons:

    1-A lot was said about my good friend, case(), all of which were well intended and sincere, but unfortunately UNTRUE.

    2-I like case(): it's a great function, simple, straight-forward and very efficient.

    3-Quite possible, a lot of people were stopped short in their tracks by those so called limits on case() and they are doing themselves a disservice: See these threads:
    Another Problem
    Expression Help

    The fact of the matter is, you CANNOT tell ahead of time what the limits on case() are, you could only guess.

    In the first thread I referenced, a debated ensued about what the limits are. Some said the limits are 16 pairs, other said it was more, or less. That seemed odd and illogical to me: what would cause these limitations? and why that specific number?
    So, I went for it: here are the results of my experimentations:

    1-I created a case function and used 25 pairs: it works !! I doubled that number to 50, still works !!! I kept going until I hit 200, and yes, it still works !!!
    2-In the first experiment, I used very simple conditions. It seemed that with these conditions, you could at least use 200 and quite possibly a lot more. Then I started to use more and more complex conditions, and as I expected, the number of pairs were inversely proportionate to the complexity of the conditions.

    I concluded from the above that, it is not simply the number of the pairs alone that determines the limits but rather the number and the complexity, and quite possibly, coupled with other factors such as your own machine's RAM and CPU, and other hardware specifications that would determine how far you could take this function.

    As you can see, there is no way you can predict these limits in advance so, do not let these limits scare you away from a great function.

    Gabe
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: The case for Case()

    While I don't want to bother confirming your test on 200, I can confirm that it works over 16. Here's a simple test to show that it works to at least 18.

    N=18
    result = case(N=1,"A",N=2,"B",N=3,"C",N=4,"D",N=5,"E",N=6,"F",N=7,"G",N=8,"H",N=9,"I",N=10,"J",N=11,"K",N=12,"L",N=13,"M",N=14,"N",N=15,"O",N=16,"P",N=17,"Q",N=18,"R")
    ui_msg_box( "RESULT", result )

    I'm sure those who said 16 was the limit did so because the "advertised" limit has long been 16. I'm also sure that the limit in at least some of the earlier versions was only 16. Apparently the function has been updated but not the documentation. (I don't recall if I responded to the earlier message or not but I would have said 16 because I have been aware of that limit for so long.)

    I just did some testing after writing the previous paragraph and found that A5v1 is limited to 16 but A5v4 and later works with 18. I did not test v2 or v3 because I don't have either of them loaded on this machine and don't see the value in doing so since v7 is about to come out.

    Cal Locklin
    www.aimsdc.net

    Comment

      #3
      RE: The case for Case()

      Please don't misunderstand my previous comment. "A5v4 and later works with 18" really means, "A5v4 and later is not limited to 16."

      Based on Gabe's tests, it appears that any current limit may be a matter of expression length or something else other than a count limit.

      Comment

        #4
        RE: The case for Case()

        I certainly did not mean to disseminate incorrect information. Perhaps the help files need to be updated, because at present this is what you'll find there:

        Description

        CASE() returns the value (Value_1 ... Value_16) specified by the first expression (Expression_1 ... Expression_16) that evaluates to .T. (TRUE). You can specify from 1 to 16 pairs of expressions and values.

        -- tom

        Comment

          #5
          RE: The case for Case()

          I already sent a note to Ed in case he missed this thread and the others.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: The case for Case()

            Tom:
            I did not mean that anyone in any way conveyed any wrong messages. As I indicated early on, all statments were well-intended. Your contribution to the Phorum is well recognized and needs no emphasis.

            The help file definitely needs to be revised. It's in my nature not to take anything for faith-value, particularly things that do not seem to follow any logic.

            Thanks
            Gabe

            Comment

              #7
              RE: The case for Case()

              After a quick check, it does not appear that CASE() has any important limitation with regard to the number of arguments. We tested to 200 arguments.

              Comment

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