Trying to do a Case statement in Powerbuilder - case

Question

Just trying to do a simple case function in powerbuild.
I have a table
client_notes
A!, B!, C!
case(client_notes when '%A!%' then 'Cash1' else "Cash2")
It compiles OK but when I run it, it says Cash2.
Shouldn't it say Cash1?

Answer 1

What's the context here? Is this in PowerScript or in a datawindow expression, or in the SQL source of the datawindow?
And what version/build of PB are you using?
What it should "say" [sic] all depends on the value of "client_notes" at runtime. It will only return the string 'Cash1' when the value of client_notes is exactly equal to the string '%A!%'.
What set of data are you running this against? Show some sample data.
-Paul Horan-

Answer 2

I have never seen a "LIKE" expression used in the expression painter but it might be possible. I gave it a quick try and wasn't able to. I would agree with what Matt said, except your expression doesn't have the important "LIKE" keyword so it is matching exactly on your string and of course not matching so always getting Cash2.
I've wanted to use > or < in CASE statements before and had problems too, the WHEN seems to be pretty 'dumb' and not able to handle anything other than a value.
This works not as elegant as a case statement though.
if ( client_notes like '%A!%' , 'Cash1',
if ( client_notes like '%B!%' , 'Cash2',
if ( client_notes like '%C!%' , 'Cash3',
'Cash?' ) ) )
What programmer doesn't like a challenge? None of these work but you probably get the thought process I was going through.
case ( ('%' + client_notes + '%') when (like 'A1') then 'Cash1' else 'Cash2' )
case ( '%A1%' when (like 'A1') then 'Cash1' else 'Cash2' )
case ( ( '%bbb%' like 'A1' ) when true then 'Yah' else 'Nah' )
No cigar on CASE...
You could use a global-function, but then again you could write a database function too and it doesn't really solve what you wanted to do. I recall wanting to use like inside a CASE statement more than once and I don't recall getting it to work. I can also recall trying to do something like case variable_a when '4:20' then 'Celebrate' when > '4:20' then 'Too late' else 'Later'
This compiles but do not think it would work due to the comparison variable needing to be different.
case( if ( client_notes like '%' + client_notes + '%', client_notes , 'X')
when 'A1' then 'Cash1'
when 'A2' then 'Cash2'
else 'use nested if instead')

Answer 3

Well, if you wanted to try it as a datawindow computed field, you could use the "brute force" method.
CASE (client_notes
WHEN 'A!' THEN 'Cash'
WHEN 'A!, B!' THEN 'Cash, Check'
WHEN 'A!, B!, C!' THEN 'Cash, Check, Money Order'
WHEN 'A!, B!, C!, D!' THEN 'Cash, Check, Money Order, Card'
WHEN 'B!' Then 'Check'
...
Else '')
In the RetrieveRow event, it might look like this:
string ls_result = ''
string ls_client_notes
If row > 0 then
ls_client_notes = this.getItemString( row, 'client_notes')
If pos( ls_client_notes, 'A!' ) > 0 then ls_result = 'Cash'
If pos( ls_client_notes, 'B!' ) > 0 then
If len( ls_result ) > 0 then
ls_result += ', Check'
Else
ls_result = 'Check'
End if
End if
If pos( ls_client_notes, 'C!' ) > 0 then
If len( ls_result ) > 0 then
ls_result += ', Money Order'
Else
ls_result = 'Money Order'
End if
End if
If pos( ls_client_notes, 'D!' ) > 0 then
If len( ls_result ) > 0 then
ls_result += ', Card'
Else
ls_result = 'Card'
End if
End if
this.setItem( row, 'client_notes', ls_result ) // if you want it back in the same column
End if
-Paul-