COMPLETE

Used as a part of a set specification to select both matching and non-matching members of an EntitySet, a relationship with fields, a form, a menu, a result set, or a structured application document.

Syntax

object (COMPLETE)

Parameters

Comments

COMPLETE, when used in a set specification, selects all records in the associated object regardless of whether they satisfy a modifying relationship. This function is related to the theoretical partial outer join operation.

Note: When using the WHERE clause with COMPLETE, if the conditions specified by the WHERE clause are not met, then no data is returned, even though the COMPLETE option has been specified.

Example

list Employees (complete) WorkIn Departments

Lists all employees regardless of whether they work in a particular department. If some employees lack corresponding Departments values, then the Departments fields in the list of composite records are $Null.

find all Managers (complete) Manage Employees

Lists all managers regardless of whether they currently have a staff.

See Also

ADD

CHANGE

COMPUTE

DELETE

FIND

LIST

REPORT FROM

SELECT

UNRELATED

UPDATE

USING

Marks the start of a comment in an application program.

Syntax

[ZIMcommand] % comment

Parameters

Comments

The percent sign marks the start of a comment in an application program.

Example

% Process accelerators
form set (not scroll) fPlayers     % switch off scrolling
case
when Event.EventName = "F3"    % "Exit" accelerator
return           % terminate main procedure
when Event.EventName = "F4"    % "Update" accelerator
UpdatePlayers ()
when Event.EventName = "F5"    % "Add" accelerator
AddPlayers (PlayersAdded)
when Event.EventName = "F6"    % "Delete" accelerator
DeletePlayers (PlayersDeleted)
when Event.EventName = "F7"    % "Report" accelerator
ReportPlayers ()
endcase

Transfers control to another procedure.

Syntax

TRANSFORM procedurename [(]expression[)]

Parameters

Comments

TRANSFORM transfers execution control to the specified procedure, but does not return control to the calling procedure once procedurename has finished executing. Control returns instead to the “parent” of the calling procedure.

Example

Consider the following sequence of procedures:

01 procedure Proc1 ( )

02  Proc2 ( )       (Control goes to line 12)

:   … more commands …

10 endprocedure

11 %————————

12 procedure Proc2 ( )

13   transform Proc3 ( )   (Control goes to line 23)

:   … more commands …

21 endprocedure

22 %———————–

23 procedure Proc3 ( )

24  … more commands …

25 endprocedure      (Control goes to line 03)

The normal flow (without TRANSFORM) is Proc1 to Proc2 to Proc3 to Proc2 to Proc1.

The flow for calling with TRANSFORM is Proc1 to Proc2 to Proc3 to Proc1.

See Also

How To Call Procedures

RETURN

STOP

Returns the position of the current member of a result set.

Syntax

$currentmember(setname)

Parameters

Return Value

Number, with no decimal places.

Comments

$currentmember returns the (numerical) position of the current member within the specified result set. To explicitly specify the current set, use “CurrentSet” (including the quotation marks), as CurrentSet is a reserved word and the function is expecting a character string.

To ensure against unexpected results, choose set names carefully. At run time, the software distinguishes sets only by their names, even if they are permanent set names created in different application directories.

If, for example, you produce a set called Set1 in directory PersonnelData, and later you produce another set called Set1 in directory TestData, the second version of Set1 replaces the first version. Function $currentmember works only on the most recent version of the set.

Example

let vMemberNum = $currentmember("Set1")

If the current member of Set1 is the fifth member, then variable vMemberNum is set to 5.

while
... process current member ...
if $currentmember("TempSet") = $lastmember("TempSet")
break
endif
next TempSet
endwhile

The WHILE loop processes TempSet one member at a time, breaking out when the last member of the set has been processed.

See Also

$lastmember

Converts an ordinal number into a character.

Syntax

$tochr(number)

Parameters

Return Value

Each of the decimal numbers from 0 to 255 represents a character output by your workstation. $tochr converts a given number to the corresponding character.

Note: The ascii character 0 returns an ascii null value. Zim sees the null character as an End of Line character and stops outputting data. In addition, the ascii character 32 (a space) translates to a 0 since the $tochr function expects a number as the parameter. So, $tochr (” “) translates to $tochr(0) and results in the null value. No matter how encountered, a null value in a string truncates the string at the first null character encountered.

If number is negative or greater than 255, the result of the function is $Null.

The character produced by the $tochr function can be converted back to a decimal number by the $toord function.

Comments

Ordinal number refers to the decimal numbers 0 to 255 that you computer uses to represent the characters available on your system.

Example

$tochr(32)

Evaluates to a space (on ASCII machines).

$tochr($toord("Z"))

Evaluates to “Z”.

See Also

$left

$substring

$toalpha

$todate

$tonumber

About Character Literals

About Functional Expressions

Conversion Between Data Types

Calculates a date value by adding years to (or subtracting years from) a specified date value.

Syntax

$addyears(date,number)

Parameters

Return Value

Number, representing a DATE value.

Comments

Use $addyears to perform arithmetic with date values. The $addyears function calculates a date value by adding a number representing years to a date value. If number is negative, the effect is to subtract the years from the date.

The + (add) and – (subtract) operators can be used to achieve the same results.

If date or the result of the $addyears expression is an invalid date (e.g., 19930231), it is adjusted to produce a valid date (e.g., 19930228).

Example

If $Date has the value 19981225, then

$addyears($date,5)

Evaluates to 20041225.

$addyears($date,-5)

Evaluates to 19931225.

$addyears(19980229,1)

Evaluates to 19990228.

See Also

$adddays

$addmonths

$addweeks

$todate

$weekday

$year

+ (Add/Positive)

– (Subtract/Negative)

About Functional Expressions

Arithmetic with Dates

Matches all subsequent characters in a value.

Syntax

expression1 = expression2 ?

Parameters

Comments

Used with the equals sign in logic expressions, the ? wildcard matches any number of subsequent characters when expression2 is compared to expression1. The question mark must appear outside of the pattern string.

Example

DeptNum = "D56"?

Logically true if the department number begins with the string “D56”. Notice that the question mark must appear outside the string.

RemarkField = "Smith?"

Shows the question mark being used literally in a string. (The characters appear inside the quotation marks.) The expression is logically true only if Remarkfield contains the exact characters Smith?.

Surname = fCustomer.LastName?

Shows how the wildcard can be attached directly to an atomic expression employing a variable, local variable, form field, or formal parameter, provided the object is of a character data type. (Trailing blanks in the specified object are trimmed for pattern-matching purposes.)

See Also

Conventions

How To Construct Logic Expressions

How To Use Logic Expressions

Specifies the page heading for a report.

Syntax

PAGE HEADING [BREAK HEADING indicator] reportitem [:format:]

Parameters

Comments

The PAGE HEADING command causes a heading to be displayed at the top of every page of a report. It also controls the display of break headings at the top of each report page. Report items in this command can include individual data values only from the first record to be processed on the current report page.

See Also

BREAK (Reports)

How to Use The Report Generator

PAGE FOOTING

REPORT HEADING

Report Item Format Options

SORTED BY

Sorts the members of the set produced by the main command.

Syntax

SORTED BY «expression [ASCENDING|DESCENDING]»

Parameters

Comments

The sorting clause determines the order in which the selected records are to appear in the set. The fields to be used as sort keys (identified by each expression) must be part of the set produced by the main command.

If you omit the sorting clause, the software determines the order of the records.

Note: Existing result sets can also be sorted after selection – with the SORT command.

Example

list all Employees sorted by Department descending FirstName LastName

The preceding command lists all Employees by department (in descending order) and, within department, by first and last names (in ascending order).

report from Invoices
sorted by {$month(InvoiceDate)-5
where $month(InvoiceDate) >= 6,
$month(InvoiceDate)+7}
:
endreport

The preceding program fragment reports invoices in order by fiscal month, assuming that the fiscal year begins in June.

See Also

SORT

Changes or assigns a password to the current Zim user ID.

Syntax

PASSWORD newpassword [oldpassword]

Parameters

Comments

The new password takes effect immediately. To remove a password, use a value for newpassword that is $Null.

Password checking is case-sensitive. They must be changed during a read/write transaction because passwords are stored in encrypted form. An attempt to change a password during a read-only transaction fails.

Example

Transaction (Explicit Read Write transaction)

password “$moreprofits” “$profits”

Changes the current user’s password from $profits to $moreprofits.

See Also

Data Types

Case Sensitivity

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