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access.by-exp

Modifier/Access: Verbs, Releases: AP and R83

Explodes multi-values for sorting purposes.

Syntax

by-exp attr.name {'explosion limiter'}

Description

designates a sort key, in ascending, 'exploded' multi-value order. It must be is followed by an 'attr.name'.

The 'by-exp' modifier is used to sort attributes that may contain more than one value. When the 'by' modifier is used on a multi-valued attribute, it only sorts on the first value in the attribute. Further, each item-id will only appear one time, assuming that its display is not suppressed.

When the 'by-exp' modifier is used, it 'explodes' each value in the attribute and treats each value as though it were a separate item. Each value sorts into its proper position, and the item-id will appear with each value. In other words, the number of times and item-id will appear on a report coincides to the number of values in the exploded attribute.

In Advanced Pick, 'by-exp' may be used with any verb that lists or selects items, such as 'list' or 'select'. R83 did not allow 'by-exp' to be used with 'non-sorting' verbs, and was simply ignored.

The 'explosion limiter' specifies that output only occurs on data elements meeting the print limiting criteria.

Example

sort customers by-exp invoice.pointers

sort invoices by-exp product = 'widget'

select fn by-exp pay-date >= '01/01/93' and by-exp pay-date <=
'12/31/93'.

Note that in this example, the second 'by-exp' is required to return
the correct data.

See Also

Command Name Type Description
access.by-dsnd Modifier Defines descending sort key in Access sentence.
access.modifiers Definition List of Access modifiers.
access.by-exp-dsnd Modifier Explodes multi-values in descending sequence.
access.seqlist Definition Definies collation sequence.
access.by Modifier Defines (ascending) sort key in Access sentence.
basic.readnext Statement Retrieves the next item-id from an active list.
access.attr.name Attribute Defining Item Specifies item(s) from the dictionary of the file.
access.sort Verb: Access Sorts file.
value Definition Field used to store data within an attribute.
collation.order Definition Definition of collation order.

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