concatination of two alphanumeric fields in place of existing field.

[jlockley]

I know there's an easy way to do this with changeto, but I need detail help:

I have imported information from Cardscan and and Corel database into the same pdox file. Each handles names differently (last first/first last)but both also have separate first and last fields .I therefor want to replace the existing name field with the last name (space, no comma) first name using a query.

I know this is easy, but I am missing the turn somewhere. How do I handle this? It sounds like this using the query form (I am not up to coding queries..sorry):
[2000.name], changeto [2000.Last Name] || [2000.First Name]
or

[2000.name], changeto [2000.Last Name]+ [2000.First Name]

or:
.., changeto [2000.Last name] || etc

The first has no success. The leaves every record with [2000.Last Name] [2000.First Name] - so how do I get it to concatinate two fields into a third?

(I know that I am going to bang my head against the desk when I see the answer.)

 

[footpad]

jlockley,

Use a QBE query:

Tablename.db | First Name | 
             | _fn        | 
             
Tablename.db | Last Name               |
             | _ln, changeto _ln + _fn |

Remember that Paradox returns the CHANGED records after a changeto query. If you run this, then, and see the "original" data, take another look at the name in the titlebar. It should be CHANGED.DB. This is a temporary table containing the original data and serves as a backup in case you make a mistake.

To verify the actual changes, you'll need to re-open the original table.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[jlockley]

OK - did I mention "duh"? I've got two things. After some late night reading I get the feeling that the CALC operator would actually be the more appropriate method of combining strings - So I should be able to get my results by writing calc First Name+" "+Last Name (maybe the space is an issue?) without the brackets. The result, however, reads
val: 2000.Last Nameval: field:2000.First - I am obviously missing something here which you all know.

The second issue is a little more embarrassing: I have been using Pdx since right after the rocks cooled stumbling about and occasionally even learning something, but for me a query is a long scrolling bar with check boxes.

I Don't understand the process you all keep mentioning here
Use a QBE query:

Tablename.db | First Name |
| _fn |

Tablename.db | Last Name |
| _ln, changeto _ln + _fn | etc--

Obviously this can and should be learned, but do I write this in notepad as namechange.qbe and then run it or...? Not dumb, just enormously ignorant.



Thanks.

 

[Guest_imported]

Pretty much. However, you need to write the whole query if you do it that way.

Query
ANSWER: RIV:ANSWER.DB

Tablename.db | First Name |
| _fn |

Tablename.db | Last Name |
| _ln, changeto _ln + _fn | etc--

EndQuery

The underscores indicate example elements. If you do it interactively with the QBE tool, <F5 key> + fn would be the same as _fn in the manual query.

 

[jlockley]

Much obliged. Encouraged I renamed the query to .txt and opened.

I figured out at least one of the issues not working. It did go with calc, but it would only append a new field, not change an existing. I think I was missing an example element, or some such thing.

The lesson is very much appreciated.

jlockley