Referencing a list in an "if" statement in an xlat

[Tom Arrowsmith]

I’ve been meaning to ask this for some time now… in an xlate, is there a way to avoid having to mention the field over and over again when using the “&&” or “||” operators?

For instance, I am used to having to do the following:

If  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=9 ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=D ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=G ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=H ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=J ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=K ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=M ||  ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=N || ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=O || ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0] eq=P  

then do….

Is there a way to cut down on the typing here?

I’m used to things like Crystal where you can say if value is IN {9, D, G, H, J, K, M, N, O, P} then do…..

thanks for any advice…..

tom

Topic

[Chris Williams]

Several options come to mind:

(1) In later CL versions, the IF statement has the string operator “ct” for “Contains”.

(2) If you’re just concerned about the keystrokes, you could copy the field reference to an @variable and use that instead.

(3) You could do some tcl with [lcontain list element] before your IF to see if conditions are met and put the result (0 or 1) into an @variable and use that in your IF statement.

[Jim Kosloskey]

How about using a lookup table?

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Rehman Masood]

Jim Kosloskey wrote:

How about using a lookup table?

+1. I was going to suggest the same thing.

[Max Drown (Infor)]

I’d do it in tcl.

-- Max Drown (Infor)

[ian.smith]

Chris Williams wrote:

Several options come to mind:

(1) In later CL versions, the IF statement has the string operator “ct” for “Contains”.

(2) If you’re just concerned about the keystrokes, you could copy the field reference to an @variable and use that instead.

(3) You could do some tcl with [lcontain list element] before your IF to see if conditions are met and put the result (0 or 1) into an @variable and use that in your IF statement.

To elaborate on Chris’s options:

COPY

Source: =9 D G H J K M N O P

Destination: @temp_var

IF

@temp_var ct ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0]

[Jim Beall]

I need to check PR1.18 and if it’s one of five values do the same thing.  If I understand this right, instead of doing a bunch of “ors” I could do this:

COPY

Source: =ED OPS OBV CLI QER

Destination: @temp_var

IF

@temp_var ct ~0(0).PV1(0).00148(0)

Just want to confirm because the syntax seems almost backwards to me.  Thanks

[Chris Williams]

Sounds right to me.

IF contains

[Jim Beall]

I ended up going back to multiple OR’s.  The value OP returned true for the variable containing ED OPS OBV CLI QER which I didn’t want.  I assume it did that because it matched the first two letters in OPS – or maybe I implemented it incorrectly?  Still good to know though; this will come in handy in the future.  Thanks!

[Chris Williams]

We probably should have mentioned that. The ct operator looks for a pattern that matches anywhere in the string on the left side of the equation, similar to tcl’s [string first]. It is not comparable to [lcontain] which matches on list-elements. You can resolve the issue you encountered by using separators in the string of all your choices and also use them along with the item you are testing for to get a more exact match.

Using your example, you could change the left side to “.ED.OPS.OBV.CLI.QER.” and add the separator character both before and after the right side item. “.OP.” to avoid matching on substrings.

[Ian Morris]

Jim Beall wrote:

I need to check PR1.18 and if it’s one of five values do the same thing.

[Author]

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