"Invalid Report Filter Expression"

[lemow]

Hi,

I am trying to preview a report based on a query done in xbasic, the query filter I have set up is: "query.filter=Content<"+quote(var->Num)", Num is a character variable and is entered by user, Content (Character) is a field from the table in question, I have set up print preview as follows: "report.preview("Inventory Status", query.filter), but then I get the error:"Invalid Report Filter Expression:'Content<"2"'."
I tried not using the "query.filter" in print preview expression but it kept giving me the same records everytime I ran this. I also tried putting the filter expression again in the "Select Records" of Report "Inventory Status" but it gives me "Invalid expression". I am trying to get the records with contents less than the number entered by the user, is there something wrong with this expression? I appreciate anyone's feedback.

[turbojack]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Is content a number or a character? If it is a Number code should be
query.filter= "Content < " + quote(val(var->Num))

[lemow]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Content is of type character.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Ali,

Try writing the expression without using variables.

preview_report("Inventory_status","trim(Content) < '2' ")

Then convert the expression that works with constants to one that works with variables.

By the way, I'm curious what typical field values might be for Content? It's very rare that the less than operator is used with character type data.

-- tom

[lemow]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Tom,

Thanks for your reply.
Initially, I put Content as a Numerical but I was getting error from my xbasic code, so I changed it to character field and it worked fine. I have written codes where I used "less than" operator or other operators with character types and there was no problem... Please note that the variable Num is a numerical entered by the user ("Num=ui_get_num("... and that is also of character type, I am not sure how I can do this by setting it up as you mentioned with print.preview expression.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

You're trying to run. I want you to walk.

Get the report to work using a constant instead of a variable.

Then post the working expression here. We can adapt it for use with the variable once it's working correctly with a constant.

-- tom

[G Gabriel]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Num is a character variable and is entered by user

Please note that the variable Num is a numerical entered by the user ("Num=ui_get_num("... and that is also of character type

This is an exercise in confusion!

num is numeric, not a character.
Your script could be easily fixed as you have it, but there is no sense of fixing a twisted construct like this:

You had content as numeric
You got an error message
You changed to character
It worked fine at first
Then you got an error
Now you are trying to fix the latest error.

Let's go back to the first error: Change content back to numeric, as it should be, and tell us what error you get. There is no sense in having content as C and the variable as N

[Stan Mathews]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

num is numeric, not a character.

No. The result of ui_get_number() is a character type. The function merely aids in controlling the result by means of the optional format string parameter.

[lemow]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Tom,

I tried with constants but keep getting same error with trim expression or query.filter in the report.preview expression. When I tried "query.filter="Content<'2'", I got the error "Incorrect argument data type" but with "Content<2", it was treating it like it found no records even when I changed the number!
I even changed Content type from character to numerical to see if that would help but no success!

Gabriel

Num is a character, what I meant was that user enters only numerical but in the code it is described as a character.

[G Gabriel]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Stan:
Ok..
I fail to see the logic.
The help file does say it's a character contrary to what reasonable humans would expect. If it's going to get a character, why not then just use any character input field?! One would expect, get_number means what it says! and it is there to be distinguished from a character input field.

I guess Ali is not confused, somebody at alpha needs to get their logic and terminology straight. Instead of expecting the user to follow up with val(), alpha should do that internally.

Ali:
You still need to make content numeric, why?
because:
If both are character, then
if content is 1 and num is 2, the expression:
content<num will be true
but if content is 3 and num is 12,
the expression:
content<num will be false, when you expect it to be true.
I suppose, you could keep it the way it is and use val() for both.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Ali, is there some reason you didn't try the expression I suggested?

Can you zip your table and its dictionaries and post it here?

--t

[Stan Mathews]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Ali, is there some reason you didn't try the expression I suggested?

Can you zip your table and its dictionaries and post it here?

--t

I think there is no way to see what is happening until we see a sample. The content field may hold any combination of leading or trailing spaces to make the comparison fail. Tom suggested trim() but for example

content = "   2"
? content< "2"
= .T.

[lemow]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Gabriel,

I tried with val() expressions you mentioned but I kept getting the error "Invalid Report Filter Expression"... Even when I changed Content's type from character to Numerical, it didn't help!

Tom,

I tried your expression and was getting the error "Invalid Report Filter Expression" or the other one I mentioned in my previous post. Attached is the set with all its dictionaries. Note: Clicking on "Reports", then "Inventory" would leas you to where I am referring to. The table that it's retrieving data from is "inventory_nms". Good Luck.

[G Gabriel]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Fixed.
[ATTACH]14058[/ATTACH]

[lemow]

Re: &quot;Invalid Report Filter Expression&quot;

Gabriel,

Can you please tell me what you found wrong? I looked at your attachment, in "Inventory" under "Reports" but I didn't see anything different. Thanks.