I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I started playing around with some sample code and ran into something I didn't understand. I am guessing that this is me missing some basics in regards to FOCUS and if so, any explanation would be helpful.

I cut down the code to just a simple case, but the idea is that I'd loop though some values and place them into variables. The intention is to reduce the number of lines in the code by creating those variables through a loop instead of explicitly defining them all.

Anyway, this code works. If I put a value in for the -SET &VAR1 value, it will be emptied. If I put a value in for -SET &VAR&i.EVAL, that will show up as output.

   
-SET &VAR1 = ' ';

-SET &i = 1;
-SET &VAR&i.EVAL     = ' ';

-TYPE &VAR1
-EXIT

When I comment out the first line & run the code, I get prompted to enter a value for &VAR1. And this is the part that confuses me, as shown in the next code block.

-*SET &VAR1 = ' ';

-SET &i = 1;
-SET &VAR&i.EVAL     = ' ';

-TYPE &VAR1
-EXIT

When I replace -TYPE &VAR1 with -? &V, I see that one of the variables is &VAR1, which is set to a blank value.

-*SET &VAR1 = ' ';

-SET &i = 1;
-SET &VAR&i.EVAL     = ' ';

-? &V
-EXIT

So why does -TYPE &VAR1 only work when I explicitly set it to a blank space at the beginning, even though that step isn't necessary to create it?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bsullivan,

Basically your syntax is wrong. Search for "variable array". Try this syntax.

  
-SET &VAR.&i     = ' ';

Some sample code

  
-SET LP_CNT = 5;

-REPEAT LP_VAR FOR &N FROM 1 TO &LP_CNT STEP 1;

-SET &VAR.&N = DECODE &N (1 'A' 2 'B' 3 'C' 4 'D' 5 'E');
-TYPE &VAR.&N

-LP_VAR


-TYPE Variable 1 = &VAR1
-TYPE Variable 2 = &VAR2
-TYPE Variable 3 = &VAR3
-TYPE Variable 4 = &VAR4
-TYPE Variable 5 = &VAR5

quote:

Originally posted by Mighty Max:
Basically your syntax is wrong. Search for "variable array". Try this syntax.

  
-SET &VAR.&i     = ' ';

Some sample code

  
-SET LP_CNT = 5;

-REPEAT LP_VAR FOR &N FROM 1 TO &LP_CNT STEP 1;

-SET &VAR.&N = DECODE &N (1 'A' 2 'B' 3 'C' 4 'D' 5 'E');
-TYPE &VAR.&N

-LP_VAR


-TYPE Variable 1 = &VAR1
-TYPE Variable 2 = &VAR2
-TYPE Variable 3 = &VAR3
-TYPE Variable 4 = &VAR4
-TYPE Variable 5 = &VAR5

Max,

Thanks for the reply. I gave this a try & I still got the same result, where running the code prompted me to enter values for VAR1 through VAR5.

(Note: I also changed -SET LP_CNT = 5; to -SET &LP_CNT = 5; before running.)

I am looking into the variable array information to see if that helps, though.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bsullivan,

You will be prompted if you have this code in a MRE fex with "Prompt for Parameters" checkbox checked.

quote:

Originally posted by Francis Mariani:
You will be prompted if you have this code in a MRE fex with "Prompt for Parameters" checkbox checked.

Francis,

Thanks - That looks like it took care of it & it would explain my problems. It also seems like leaving the 'Prompt for Parameters' option unchecked gets ignored when you run from the code itself, which is interesting. But either way, that seems like it worked. Thanks again!

The reason you are getting prompted is because of the .EVAL

.EVAL forces an immediate evaluation of an &var before the statement is even fully parsed or executed. Since you have not yet set a value for &VAR1, you are prompted.

The .EVAL is not needed in this situation.

quote:

Originally posted by Mighty Max:

  
-SET LP_CNT = 5;

You're missing an ampersand there.

But:

-TYPE Variable 1 = &VAR1
-TYPE Variable 2 = &VAR2
-TYPE Variable 3 = &VAR3
-TYPE Variable 4 = &VAR4
-TYPE Variable 5 = &VAR5

The above will cause autoprompter to prompt for those values, because it's too retarded to see that those values are already set at that point. As I understand it, the autoprompting facility doesn't actually parse (or understand) the dialog manager code, it just looks for variables in the entire procedure and checks that there are -SET or -DEFAULT statements that provide a value for an exact match of those variables it found.

For extra fun, put in a -EXIT before the above block and auto-prompt will still attempt to find values for those variables even though that code is never reached!

-EXIT

-* Never reached
-TYPE Variable 1 = &VAR1
-TYPE Variable 2 = &VAR2
...