So it's not allowed to use it as I (we) do?

.....

In WebFOCUS with DECODE the ELSE value can not be a field name, it must be a literal. That can be confusing since, for instance, Oracle has a Decode function where the ELSE value can be a field name. Essentially you have to do it like GamP did it.

N.

my solution is working with the ELSE fieldname...

quote:

DEFINE FILE CAR
INDIACAR/A20=DECODE CAR( 'JAGUAR' 'HONDA' ELSE CAR );
END

The DECODE function is putting the character string 'CAR' into the field INDIACAR.
so the way to use decode would be something like:
INDIACAR/A20=DECODE CAR('JAGUAR' 'ALL MINE' ELSE ' ');
or
INDIACAR/A20=DECODE CAR (filename ELSE ' ');
then
INDIACAR/A20=IF INDIACAR IS ' ' THEN CAR ELSE INDIACAR;
in this case the word CAR references a field, not a character string.
remembering that with DEFINEs, the last referenced define is the value pulled in a TABLE request, which is one of those blessedly *gifted* features of wf we take for granted and can't live without.

In sql the Decode function is used often to flip the axis of data. (denormalize data)
I'm sure there's a better term, but I don't know what it is.

Such as, if you have data of
Product Line
Sales $

To get the Sum of Sales for a Product Line you would have to do a
Select ProductLine, Sum(sales) from table group by ProductLine

but, what if you wanted to group those productlines together? As in you wanted to combine something like Soap and Shampoo

Select
sum(Case when productline in ('Soap','Shampoo') then Sales else 0 end) as "ShowerSupplies',
Sum(case when productline NOT in
('Soap','Shampoo') then Sales else 0 end) as "Everything_But_ShowerSupplies'
from sometable

Comes in handy more than one might think. Thought I'd bring it up.