• Add Fields to List Dialog Box
• Alpha Five Basics
• Automatic Backup and Revision Control of Layouts and Field Rules
• Automatically Populating Linking Field Values when Doing Data Entry
• Calculated Fields
• Calculated Values
• Changing the Caseof Words
• Coded Fields
• Controlling a Field's Width
• Copy Previous Field
• Creating a Field Rule Event
• Creating a Posting Field Rule
• Creating a Simple List
• Creating and Using a Summary Field
• Creating and Using an Email Smart Field
• Creating and Using Calculated Values
• Data Field Control Properties
• Default Values
• Defaulting a Date Field to Today's Date
• Define an Alpha Five View Query
• Dial Phone Number in Field
• Display Help Topic
• Exporting Fields from a Table
• Expression Builder
• F1 Context Sensitive Help
• Field Rule Field Events
• Field Rule Record Events
• Field Rules
• Field Rules Table Lookups
• Field Rules: Field Types
• Filtering Records to Exclude a Single Field Value
• Find Tables that Contain a Field Name
• Form Level Field Rules
• How Auto-Increment Fields Work
• Improvements V9
• List Box Table Lookup
• Mask Style
• Microsoft Word Integration
• Modifying a Form Field on the On Change Event
• Multi Field Quick Filter Dialog Box
• Override Field Definitions Dialog
• Overview of Field Rules
• Parent-Child Dialog Example
• Placing a Calculated Value on a Form
• Placing a Data Field on a Form
• Placing Bitmap and JPEG Image Fields
• Placing Image File Reference Fields
• Placing Smart Fields on a Form
• Query Builder
• Quickly Sorting and FilteringRecords
• Re-EvaluatingField Rules
• Recalculating Calculated Fields
• Required Fields
• Resize Fields to Fit Data
• Retrieving Distinct Field Values
• Returning a Different Field Than You Display
• Right-Click Menus
• Select Fields Dialog - Generic
• Select Text in a Field
• Skipping Over Fields
• Sorting and Selecting Overview
• Specify Filter Dialog
• Specify Order Dialog
• Specify Table Name Dialog
• Tracking Changes to Table Fields
• Types of Field Rules
• Update Example
• Using a Coded Lookup Field
• Using Field Rules to Generate A Table Lookup
• Using Field Statistics
• Using Object Properties for Table Lookups
• Using the Fields Panel
• Validation Rules
• When Calculated Fields are Calculated
• Xbasic View Record

Update Example

Description

Updates are the most common and easiest operations that users will perform. Here is an example that uses the AlphaSports sample database.

1. Open the AlphaSports database.

2. Display the Operations tab of the Control Panel.

3. Click New to display the Create New Operation dialog.

4. Select "Update records" from the left-hand list.

5. Select "Invoice_Items" from the right-hand list.

6. Enter the following data into the fields that appear.

   • Field

     Quantity

   • Expression

     Quantity * 2

   • Condition

     Quantity > 1

   • 1. Click the 'down' button in the Field column to display a list of fields in the table. Select "Quantity". If you knew the name of the field, you could simply type in this value.

   • 2. Click 'xy' in the Expression column to display the Expression Builder. Note how the Expression Builder shows you the value of quantity in the first record after being multiplied by 2. It also confirms that the result will be N (numeric). If this was a character field, the result would have to be C (character).

     

   • 3. Click 'xy' in the Condition column to display the Expression Builder. Note how the Expression Builder shows you the value of quantity in the first record after being compared to the value 1. It also confirms that the result will be L (logical). The value in this field must always evaluate to .T. (records to process) or .F. (records to ignore).

     

7. Click the 'lightning' icon to start Run on the toolbar. All quantity values greater than 1 will be doubled.

Changing Data Types

For example, an import operation brought a time field into a table as a Numeric value. The update operation needs to change it to a Short Time value. The update operation could specify.

Field

Expression

Condition

The New_Field receives the new value. The expression totime(Old_Field,1,0) expression changes a numeric value to a short time value. The .t. indicates that all records are to be processed.