Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.
Words and Phrases
| Search for | Example | Results |
|---|---|---|
| A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
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A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |
Using Boolean Operators
| Search for | Operator | Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Two or more words in the same topic |
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| Either word in a topic |
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| Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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| Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
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| A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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Format Control Boolean (logical) fields
In the forms for Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, and Subroutines, you will find some or all of the following fields:
| Conditional Field | Format Control processing area | Description |
|---|---|---|
| add | Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, JavaScript | Conditional expressions used in this field are evaluated before a record is added. |
| update | Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, JavaScript | Conditional expressions used in this field are evaluated before a record is updated. |
| delete | Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, JavaScript | Conditional expressions used in this field are evaluated before a record is deleted. |
| display | Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, JavaScript | Conditional expressions used in this field are evaluated when a screen/format is displayed or when the Format Control record is used with reports. |
| initial | Additional File Queries, Calculations, Validations, JavaScript | Conditional expressions used in this field are evaluated once, before a record is displayed the first time. |
| before | Subroutines | This field determines when the Conditional expressions in the add, update, and delete fields are evaluated. If the condition is true, the expression will be evaluated before the record is added, updated, or deleted. If the condition is false, the evaluated after the record is added, updated, or deleted. You cannot use a variable in this field. |
These fields must evaluate to true or false only. A value of true (or an expression that evaluates to true) in any of these fields causes the Format Control functions to execute. These functions execute before the edit is performed. If the fields are blank, the calculation or validation are not performed for this table. For example, a value of true in the add field causes Format Control functions to be performed before a record is added. If the other fields (update, delete, display) are blank, the functions are not performed when the record is updated, deleted, or displayed.
Normally, these fields contain true, false, blank, or they can contain a variable that is calculated in the Calculations process before being used in another process. When using either of these methods, use either the short or long version of Format Control to enter an expression that is evaluated to true or false at execution time.
This is an example of an expression that is frequently used:
index ("SysAdmin", $lo.ucapex)>0
This expression searches the user’s capability array in the Operator Record to see if it has SysAdmin capabilities. The function executes if this evaluates to true, indicating that the operator has SysAdmin listed as a capability and therefore is authorized for the function.
Related topics
Format Control
Using expressions in Format Control
Format Control system functions
Format Control file variable
Open a Format Control record
Add a Format Control record
Turn on menu forms by using Format Control
