Your conversation sounds fascinating. It is encouraging that others can accomplish lofty goals in sesame. I on the other hand can not get past basic selection lists. 

I took a fresh approach  last night and tried to simplify this process. I am trying this task with 2 single form databases for simplicity.

I started new db, 1 form 2 fields the fields are e1 and e2
I will use the sample zipcodes.db from sesame.

I put

XUserselectr("C:\Sesame\Data\zipcode.db", "zipcode!state", "State", "A"," Z", e2)

In on field exit  program of e1

I thought that when I exited field e1 I would receive a selection list made up of  info from the state field in Zipcode.db  then that info would return the selected state to field e2 once selection was made.

When I leave e1 sesame says working but it just runs indefinitely until I ctrl alt del to menu that says not responding.

What can I possibly have wrong in such a simple task?

Bill,

I have emulated exactly what you have described. I used zipcodes.db. and your logic of XUserselectr("C:\Sesame\Data\zipcode.db", "zipcode!state", "State", "A"," Z", e2)

I think I see why you think it is not working. 

After you exit e1 wait. DO NOT use task mgr to exit. It takes a while for some reason but after a few minutes it will bring up a selection list.

It took about 90 seconds for the selection list to be presented.

Let us know if this thought is correct. Thanks

I realize that it is working on 43042 records in Zipcode database but it still seems like an excessively long time to generate.

Can anyone explain why it is taking so long for this selection box?

I even changed  billgordons logic from a-z to XUserselectr("C:\Sesame\Data\zipcode.db", "zipcode!state", "State", "M"," P", e2) to see if it had a different effect. Still very slow.

Yes Bob you were correct!  Thank you.

Now  Bharat_Naik to follow  your example and have it use what I place in a field and have a selection box . I put this  code  in Global Code   (even though I do not understand what it is doing)
 
stat vFieldName as String 
stat vStart as String 
stat vEnd as String 
 
Subroutine PickList_choose( ) 
 
vStart = @left (vFieldName, @in (vFieldName, "..") - 1) + @chr (1) 
vEnd = @left (vFieldName,   @in (vFieldName, "..") - 1) + "zzzzzzz" 
End Subroutine 

Then I placed this in my  e1 Element on element exit event.  I have adjusted it to the name of my new test  database name. 
 
if @in(e1, "..") > 0 then   
 
{ 
  vFieldName = e1 
  picklist_choose ( ) 
   
  e2 = @XUserselectR ("C:\Sesame\Data\zipcode.db", "zipcode!state", "state", vStart, vEnd) 
 
}

Nothing at all happens. What is wrong? 

Bill, we are using this code for different purpose. What you want to do here is, put State Name in two letters and it should display the list of certain zipcodes for that state only.

The modified code might work for this purpose. I did not try it but this is mainly to shorten the list to display according to the initial string of the value.

As for example

If you want to have list of anything that begin with "Wh..", it will display white, whitehall, white House etc... from the whole list of say 3000 values.

For the example I have merged the example applications Gems.db and Customers.db.

By putting the following code in the On Exit of the Gem_Type LE of the "Gems Types" form of the "Gems Types" database:

// declare some variables - all strings
var v_result as string
var v_start as string
var v_end as string

// set start value to the contents of the field we are in
v_start = Gem_Type

// set the end of the range to that value with a bunch of "z"s
// tacked on to force the full alphabetic range. If the user puts
// "PAR" in the field, this wil force the range to include anything
// that starts with "PAR" through "PARzzzzzzzz" - including
// "PARIS" and "PARKMAN".

v_end = v_start + "zzzzzzzz"
v_start = v_start + @chr(1)

// In this application file, look at the form named "Main Form" for
// the LE named "City" - if its contents are in the range starting
// with what the user typed into "Gem_Type" and ending with
// that value with a bunch of "z"s concatenated on it - then
// return the value in "City" to the User Select list. If the user
// selects one of those City values, return the value in City and
// put it in the variable "v_result".

v_result = @XUserSelectR(@fn, "Main Form!City", "City", v_start, v_end)

// Put the value in "v_result" back into the LE "Gem_Type"
Gem_Type = aa


I got what I think you are asking for using Sesame 1.0.1. Remember that you need to test any of the X functions (XUserSelect, XLookup, etc..) using the actual Sesame runtime - not the Preview option of the Designer.

I stripped out all the error checking and other niceties, so this would be easier to follow. The lines beginning with "//" are comments and you do not need to type those in, they are there to give you a blow by blow explanation of what is happening.

The hard parts here are that you have to remember to use the form name when specifying the "ext select", but *not* use it again for the "source". So the external select is:

Form Name!LE Name - in the example: "Main Form!City"

But the "source" is just "City".

In the your example you would probably use something like:

//------------------ On Exit from ordername
var v_result as string
var v_start as string
var v_end as string

v_start = ordername

v_end = v_start + "zzzzzzzz"
v_start = v_start + @chr(1)
v_result = @XUserSelectR(@fn, "entry!lastname", "lastname", v_start, v_end)
ordername = v_result
//-----------------------------

if your form is named the same thing as your database (it usually is).

I hope this helps. If you have any questions at all - do not be afraid to ask.

What does @error say about it. The X functions will set @error if they fail.

Is it meant to return the same LE that appears in the menu or a different LE on the same form?

Mark, it still does not work with space without putting @chr (1) in var v_start for the search for the whole word which is followed by a space.

"Blue" would not pull up Blue Cross

Bl  will list everything starting with Bl.