Associated fields and @AF

[Jeff Harrison]

--- Chad McWilliams <chad at computiprint.com> wrote:

> > I think what you are missing (and perhaps this was
> not 
> > mentioned in the manual) is that you need to sort
> by the 
> > associated field for this to be effective.
> > 
> > Jeff Harrison
> > jeffaharrison at yahoo.com
> > 
> > Author of JHImport and JHExport. The fastest and
> > easiest way to create code for filePro Imports and
> > Exports. 
> > 
> 
> I'm not trying to disagree with you, but I don't
> understand what sorting
> would have to do with the situation.  All the work
> is being done within a
> single record, so, as I see it, sorting should have
> no effect within the
> individual record.
> 
> -Chad
> 

Associated fields seem to be one of the lesser
understood things in filepro - Selection sets are
another.  I guess it is because these concepts are
pretty original with filepro - at least as far as I
know.

I'm sure there have been articles on the topic of
associated fields and output processing.  Perhaps
someone else can direct you to one of these.

Basically, if you sort a report by an associated field
- say for example A0)  Then a given record will
potentially be included in your report multiple times
- once for each non-blank instance of the field that
is associated in the A0) group.  If you do this, then
@af will be "1" if the field is the first in the A0)
group, "2" if it is the second, etc.

Also, on the report you can specify *a0) on the detail
line, and also *a1)  *a2)  etc.  and all of the @af=1
records will print on the same line, @af=2 will print
on the same line, etc.

This is great if you have for example an item # as a0)
and a description that goes with it as A1) then you
will have all of your items sort in the proper order
if you specify the a0) sort for example, and their
associated descriptions will print next to them.

I hope this helps.

Jeff Harrison
jeffaharrison at yahoo.com

Author of JHImport and JHExport. The fastest and
easiest ways to create code for filePro Imports and Exports.


		
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