I'm looking through functions documentation to locate the
FOCUS command to determine if value is N (numeric) or A (aplhanumeric).

Can anyone help ?

Thanks !

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

The CHKFMT function will check the format of a string.

  

TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT 
MODEL
SALES
DEALER AS 'DEALER'
RETAIL AS 'RETAIL'
COMPUTE BADCHAR/I6 = CHKFMT(6, SALES, '999999', 'I6') ;
-* 
BY COUNTRY
BY CAR
ON TABLE SAVE
END
-RUN
-EXIT

And I get this error...

0 ERROR AT OR NEAR LINE 43 IN PROCEDURE sjustify.fexFOCEXEC *
(FOC36355) INVALID TYPE OF ARGUMENT #2 FOR USER FUNCTION CHKFMT
(FOC009) INCOMPLETE REQUEST STATEMENT
BYPASSING TO END OF COMMAND
-EXIT

CHKFMT checks each character, in a character string, for incorrect character types.

Here is a model of how it works:

APP PREPENDPATH IBISAMP
SET ONLINE-FMT = STANDARD
-RUN
DEFINE FILE CAR
 CHARSTRING/A10 = DECODE COUNTRY ('JAPAN'   '1234567890'
                                  'ENGLAND' '123456 123'
	                	         ELSE 'ABC');
 BADCHAR/I2      = CHKFMT(10, CHARSTRING, '999999999', BADCHAR);
 ISANUMBER_YN/A1 = IF BADCHAR EQ 0 THEN 'Y' ELSE 'N';
END
TABLE FILE CAR
 PRINT COUNTRY 
       CHARSTRING
       BADCHAR
       ISANUMBER_YN
END    

Only Japan is flagged as a number:

  COUNTRY     CHARSTRING  BADCHAR  ISANUMBER_YN                                 
  -------     ----------  -------  ------------                                 
  ENGLAND     123456 123        7  N           
  JAPAN       1234567890        0  Y           
  ITALY       ABC               1  N           
  W GERMANY   ABC               1  N           
  FRANCE      ABC               1  N       

CAR.SALES, in your example, is defined as an I6 in the MFD. Is this representative of the field you need to check?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: David Briars,

Or:

  
-* File tomsweb9.fex
DEFINE FILE CAR
TOM/A10=DECODE COUNTRY(
'ENGLAND' '1234567890'
'FRANCE'  '123 456'
'ITALY'   'ASDFG'
'JAPAN'   '0'
ELSE      '56');
END
TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT TOM 
COMPUTE ISNUM/A1=IF TOM EQ '0' THEN 'Y' ELSE IF ATODBL(TOM,'10','D10') EQ 0 THEN 'N' ELSE 'Y';
BY COUNTRY
END

if the variable you want to check is an &var, then just &var.TYPE will produce either an A or an N.
If an &var is all numbers, you'll get an N for its TYPE, no matter how you grabbed it.

&var.TYPE and &var.LENGTH are two handy characteristics

Susannah,

Not quite:

quote:

If an &var is all numbers, you'll get an N for its TYPE, no matter how you grabbed it.

Try:

  
-SET &LONGNUM=1234567890123456;
-TYPE &LONGNUM.TYPE

You will get: A

And this is a nice one too...


-SET &MINUS='-';
-TYPE &MINUS.TYPE


( it's a N )

Revisited with an nice insight:

In the case where the CHKFMT function does not work, as when using the SQL1010 adapter, consider the use of the EDIT command.

The EDIT command returns a 0 (zero) if the field is not a numeric field and the numeric value if it is. then check that EDITed field for a zero (which is the value for an alpha field, GT zero is a numeric field.

I hope this helps someone, someday...

hey that works great, doug. i never knew that edit returned a 0 on a /A. Beers on me at Rotiers.

Actually, I just found that out from a newbie... live And Learn...

Rotiers? When? I'll make it there this time...

Cross reference to : [url=https://forums.informationbuilders.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7971057331/m/5591039892[/url]

I added that URL just to make it easy for the next time anyone needs this.

What happens if it is a numeric field and the value happens to be zero ....

IDK... Have you tried it? I've not tried it, yet.

We don't use Oracle for starters, and I consult the MFD before writing any code, so I haven't had any reason to try this one. Nice to have in one's back pocket though ...

quote:

TABLE FILE CAR

COMPUTE BADCHAR/I6 = CHKFMT(6, SALES, '999999', 'I6') ;


(FOC36355) INVALID TYPE OF ARGUMENT #2 FOR USER FUNCTION CHKFMT

Cutting to the chase:
SALES is a numeric field. CHKFMT requires a character field as arg #2 (isn't that obvious?). Hence the FOC36355 message.