Unless I'm wrong, here are two things that we can't do with FML:

1) Use FML to create a HOLD file with a field name for the FOR column (field name not generated for the FOR column)

2) Use FML to create a report that has a column title for the FOR column (FOR column title to be in the same row as the other report column titles)

I imagine these two issues are related and I wonder if they're fixed in v7 and above.

Of course, if someone has a solution for v5.3 I'd be ecstatic to see it.

Thanks.

Francis,

Wonder no more. No, they are still apparent in 7.1.3.

The wierd thing in the HOLD file is the Usage format -

FILENAME=TEMPCAR , SUFFIX=FIX     , $
  SEGMENT=TEMPCAR, SEGTYPE=S1, $
    FIELDNAME=CAR, ALIAS=E01, USAGE=A16, ACTUAL=A16, $
    FIELDNAME=, ALIAS=E02, USAGE=A  9, ACTUAL=A12, $
    FIELDNAME=RETAIL_COST, ALIAS=E03, USAGE=D7, ACTUAL=D08, $
    FIELDNAME=DEALER_COST, ALIAS=E04, USAGE=D7, ACTUAL=D08, $

I wonder if these would be considered a fault or not? The lack of a field name and the bad formatting of the Usage value.

T

It is odd that you can use a lot of different, complicated code to create a HOLD file but using FML to create a HOLD file isn't graceful.

Does anyone have a solution for getting a column name on the FOR column? I have a user that's requesting this. I can add a free text line, but he doesn't like that.

thanks,
--wg

I don't think there's a solution yet. Maybe if we each open a new feature request...

Thanks Francis. You would think this would act like other columns (default to name of FOR column and respond to AS 'some other name'. But, maybe FML is so different, that it's hard (expensive) to implement the same behavior.

Open a request! I do not know how.

Moving on,
--wg

Winfred,

Are you wanting your user to be able to access the master file within something like report assistant or the like? If so then just hold your output in EDATEMP and then issue a copy command to place the data portion of the output in the directory of your choice -

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM RCOST
    DCOST
 BY CAR
 BY MODEL
FOR COUNTRY
'ENGLAND' OVER
'FRANCE' OVER
'W GERMANY'
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYFMLHOLD
ON TABLE SET HOLDLIST ALL
END
! COPY MYFMLHOLD.FTM [your destination directory]

The hold file will have the FOR column data there, it just doesn't have the fieldname populated. Just make sure that your MYFTMHOLD.mas exists in a directory within the APP PATH.

T

quote:

Does anyone have a solution for getting a column name on the FOR column? I have a user that's requesting this. I can add a free text line, but he doesn't like that.

Well, if [Web]FOCUS cannot help there you might find support from your operating system.

Building on top of Tony's example, I worked this code in my Unix environment which after holding the FML output, modifies the resulting masterfile setting the empty FIELDNAME value as "COUNTRY".

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM RCOST
    DCOST
 BY CAR
 BY MODEL
FOR COUNTRY
'ENGLAND' OVER
'FRANCE' OVER
'W GERMANY'
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYFMLHOLD
ON TABLE SET HOLDLIST ALL
END
-RUN
-*
-* Fix HOLD file assigning a name to the FOR field
-SET &FOR_FLD = 'COUNTRY';
-UNIX sed -e "s/FIELD.*= *,/FIELDNAME =&FOR_FLD, /g" myfmlhold.mas > myfmlhold_new.mas
-UNIX mv -f myfmlhold_new.mas myfmlhold.mas
-*
TABLE FILE MYFMLHOLD
PRINT *
END
-RUN

The key factor there is the Unix "sed" command but any other pattern-like utility (such as perl, awk, ...) can also help. If your environment is not Unix it should be possible to find any scripting language that can help you; for instance, ActivePerl could be a choice in a Windows environment.

Of course, you might attempt to do it the FOCUS way; that is, looping through the created masterfile using -READ, parsing each line to fix the missing FIELDNAME (probably using a combination of POSIT, GETTOK, SUBSTR, ...) and finally using -WRITE to create a "fixed" version of your masterfile. I just found the Unix workaround much simpler although not platform independent

Anyway, hope you can find a better solution to this.

Best,
Neftali.

Thanks to Tony and Neftali for thinking differently.

Francis,

Adding to Tony's solution:

  
APP HOLD FOCALPOINT
SET HOLDLIST=ALL
SET ASNAMES=ON
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM RCOST
    DCOST
 BY CAR
 BY MODEL
FOR COUNTRY 
'ENGLAND' OVER
'FRANCE' OVER
'W GERMANY'
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYFMLHOLD
END
-RUN
TABLEF FILE MYFMLHOLD
PRINT E01 E02 E03 AS COUNTRY E04 E05
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYFULLFML
END

As for the "funny format" this has existed since the the last quarter of the XXth century. I wonder what will happen when it gets fixed...

quote:

I wonder what will happen when it gets fixed...

Something else will break of course

T