Okay people, help me out here...

I know the obvious work-arounds.
I'm just can't figure out why this doesn't work as I think it should.


I like to select all car/models with x or x-1 seats... ...so I made this:

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
	PRINT SEATS
	BY CAR
	BY MODEL
WHERE SEATS EQ &X OR &X-1
END

But it returns 0 rows...



This works fine:

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
	PRINT SEATS
	BY CAR
	BY MODEL
WHERE ( SEATS EQ &X ) OR ( SEATS EQ &X-1 )
END

And this works fine too:

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
	PRINT SEATS
	BY CAR
	BY MODEL
WHERE SEATS EQ 5 OR 4
END

And this doesn't !

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
	PRINT SEATS
	BY CAR
	BY MODEL
WHERE SEATS EQ 5 OR 5-1
END

Not even like this

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
	PRINT SEATS
	BY CAR
	BY MODEL
WHERE SEATS EQ 5 OR (5-1)
END

WF can not perform calculation in a WHERE if there is also an OR involved? No matter how many brackets are added...?



For starters I found it strange ( compared to other languages ) that this accepted:
WHERE SEATS EQ 1 OR 4 OR 5
Especially with a NOT added
WHERE NOT SEATS EQ 1 OR 4 OR 5

I'd prefer an syntax error message over some unexplained results...


Anybody any clues?

did you look at the sql?

Dave,

quote:

-SET &X = 5;

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT SEATS
BY CAR
BY MODEL
WHERE SEATS EQ &X OR &X-1
END

There are 2 types of ORs:
expression OR expression
field EQ value OR value

In the quoted example, you are using the second type which demands a value not an expression.
Did you see if you got an error message?

I took your code and ran it (WF server 7.7.04M). I got, instead, the whole file!
Wonder why?
Since after the OR there isn't a value, WF looked at it as an expression, the value of which is not zero and treated is as TRUE, hence all the records. Neat, no?

So, why did you get 0 records?...

Both, thanks for the replies.
_______________________________________________________________________
@susannah

What SQL? It's a CAR sample...?!

On a real database this is shown:

 
08.52.27 BT  (FOC2565) THE OBJECT  OF IF/WHERE CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO SQL
08.52.27 BT  (FOC2566) WHERE WH$$$1 CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO SQL
08.52.27 BT  (FOC2583) NON-RELATIONAL OPERAND IS INVALID FOR OPERATION OR
08.52.27 BT  (FOC2590) AGGREGATION NOT DONE FOR THE FOLLOWING REASON:
08.52.27 BT  (FOC2598) FOCUS IF/WHERE TEST CANNOT BE PASSED TO SQL

Isn't that nice? i.e. it's 'handled' by WF-engine... not by SQL-engine?

_________________________________________________________________________
@Daniel


I know the difference between and operational OR and a logical OR.

But if
WHERE SEATS EQ 2 OR 4 OR 5
works fine...

It seem like it's used as a 'field EQ value OR value'
and it doesn't 'expect' an expression.

Then why does
WHERE SEATS EQ 5-3
does work?


Hence my question:
WF can not handle the -combination- of an expression and the use of 'OR' in a WHERE?


Consider it a logical OR doesn't work either.
WHERE SEATS EQ ( 4 OR 4 ) ( logically 4 OR 4 should always be 4 )


Greets,Dave

I thought Danny answered the question well.

In the documentation:

quote:

In a logical AND or OR test, all field names, test relations, and test values are explicitly referenced and connected by the words OR or AND.

quote:

In a literal OR test, the word OR is repeated between test values of a field name, but the field name itself and the connecting relational operator are not repeated.

As you are mixing logical(&X-1) and literal(&X) expressions, then the field names, test relations and test values MUST be explicitly referenced for the logical expression. So

WHERE SEATS EQ 2 OR 5 OR SEATS EQ 5-1

is the correct way to code.

Thanks Alan for looking that up...


I got it now.

quote:

In a literal OR test...

I guess it means 2 things:
Part 1: You don't have to repeat the fieldname and connecting relational operator.
Part 2: You can not use expressions as 'test values'.

The last one wasn't that obvious to me...
I assumed the word 'literal' was only used to indicate 'as an test-operator' ( in contrast to 'as a logical-operator' )



I guess my knowledge of other programming languages is throwing me off.
No other language I know allows part 1 and disallows part 2.

I guess WG needs to allow part 1 in order to be able to handle the '1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4' type of parameters filled by HTML pages.
( Why not use IN ( 1,2,3,4 ) ? Also nicer to display in the header of a report as selected values... )



Thanks all!

And no, I didn't see an error message, coz I didn't get any. ( e.g. like you get with a syntax error or label missing )
The only message you get is what I've posted earlier with TRACE on.



@IBI

quote:

08.52.27 BT (FOC2598) FOCUS IF/WHERE TEST CANNOT BE PASSED TO SQL

Isn't this odd?
There is no problem in passing 'WHERE SEATS EQ 5-1' but the is with 'WHERE SEATS EQ 5-1 OR 5'?

And I found that 'WHERE SEATS IN ( 2 , 5-1 )' translates to SQL : 'SEATS IN (2, 5, -1)'