CAR LENGTH WIDTH HEIGHT
JAGUAR 190 66 48
JAGUAR 199 70 54

Trying to load 3 amper variables LENGTH WIDTH HEIGHT with decimal data. Length, Width and Height are all D5. I should get
389 136 and 102 but as you can see I don't. What am I doing run?

-* File newfex.fex
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM
LENGTH
WIDTH
HEIGHT
WHERE CAR EQ 'JAGUAR';
ON TABLE HOLD
END

? HOLD
-RUN
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH
-TYPE &vLENGTH
-EXIT
END

gives me
0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 2 LINES= 1
0DEFINITION OF HOLD FILE: HOLD
0FIELDNAME ALIAS FORMAT
LENGTH E01 D5
WIDTH E02 D5
HEIGHT E03 D5
fffffFx@fffff÷`@fffffåY@



IF I change
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH
to
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH.D5.
I get
0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 2 LINES= 1
0DEFINITION OF HOLD FILE: HOLD
0FIELDNAME ALIAS FORMAT
LENGTH E01 D5
WIDTH E02 D5
HEIGHT E03 D5
0 ERROR AT OR NEAR LINE 13 IN PROCEDURE newfex.fex
(FOC299) UNRECOGNIZED FORMAT OF AMPER VARIABLE IN -READ: -READ HOLD,
&vLENGTH.D5.


IF I change
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH
to
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH.I5
I get
0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 2 LINES= 1
0DEFINITION OF HOLD FILE: HOLD
0FIELDNAME ALIAS FORMAT
LENGTH E01 D5
WIDTH E02 D5
HEIGHT E03 D5
fffff

Same for I6, A5, A6

NEXT SCENARIO: Print all 3 Amper varaibles
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM
LENGTH
WIDTH
HEIGHT
WHERE CAR EQ 'JAGUAR';
ON TABLE HOLD
END

? HOLD
-RUN
-READ HOLD, &vLENGTH.D5., &vWIDTH.I5., &vHEIGHT.I5.,
-TYPE &vLENGTH &vWIDTH &vHEIGHT
-EXIT
END

I get (nothing)

0 NUMBER OF RECORDS IN TABLE= 2 LINES= 1
0DEFINITION OF HOLD FILE: HOLD
0FIELDNAME ALIAS FORMAT
LENGTH E01 D5
WIDTH E02 D5
HEIGHT E03 D5

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

Try ON TABLE HOLD FORMAT ALPHA. The WebFOCUS default for a hold file is binary.

Same problem.

Not a problem if you follow Ginny's advice:

  
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM
LENGTH
WIDTH
HEIGHT
WHERE CAR EQ 'JAGUAR';
ON TABLE HOLD FORMAT ALPHA
END
-RUN
?FF HOLD
-READ HOLD &LENGTH.I5. &WIDTH.I5. &HEIGHT.I5.
-TYPE LENGTH: &LENGTH
-TYPE WIDTH:  &WIDTH
-TYPE HEIGHT: &HEIGHT
-EXIT

Note that one important change made by Tom is also the removal of the commas (,) from the -READ statement.

use SAVE FORMAT ALPHA

Hold the file in a location you can read later then you can look at it and determine how many characters to read for each variable.

As Texas suggests, use SAVE instead of HOLD unless you are going to perform a TABLE request against that file.

SAVE doesn't produce a master file whereas HOLD does as was pointed out by Tom here.

T

IronMaiden,

The first thing you have to understand is that Dialog Manager deals exclusively with CHARACTERS. &variables contain CHARACTERS which might be only numbers. That is why Ginny, Texas and Tony suggested that you use either HOLD FORMAT ALPHA or SAVE.

Also, when you use HOLD FORMAT ALPHA or SAVE, WebFocus creates records which end with CRLF, something that -READ needs.

When you want to -READ data from a file, there are 2 formats: fixed or comma-delimited. When you use SAVE you create a fixed format, unless you insert commas. So, in your case your -READ command should be:

  
-READ  &vLENGTH.I5. &vWIDTH.I5. &vHEIGHT.I5.

I hope this makes it clear.

&vars can contain decimals..which is swell..that happened several 7's ago...
so if you need your &vars to contain decimals,
you have to be sure you can actual export a text field that contains those decimals...
might take a little EDIT work up front on your source data. Give it a try

quote:

&vars can contain decimals

There's a setting to decide the precision.

T