In following discussions --

http://www.lantica.com/Forum2/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=archived;action=display...

http://www.lantica.com/Forum2/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=gen_disc;action=display...

We could narrow the picklist using @userselectr function.  Entering "new.." in the field will present the list of the items which start with New.  This is all good. But sometimes, especially when the list is descriptive, we are not sure about the starting string, but we know we are looking for certain string (keywords).  In search for something like this, we use "..String.."  search criteria.  I believe this will give us more comprehensive and complete list. So instead of string.., I would also like to have choice of entering ..string.. for selecting appropriate picklist.  

Looking for Bronchi..,  the list will not have "Acute Bronchitis"  while ..Bronchi.. will present list with all kinds of Bronchitis such as, Chronic Brochitis, Acute Brochitis, Koch's Brochitis, Purulent Brochitis, like on and on.  

I will appreciate your ideas, input and broad outline as to how can we accomplish this?  I believe, we need to brainstorm (ofcourse lanticans probably come up with something like this in no time).  If I enter Harvard.. it will not present me Harvard University if it is listed as The Harvard University. I hope, you are getting my point and see the need for expanding horizon for picklist.

I never thought it would be this quick. 
I will try to incorporate this.  Thank You.. Thank You.. Thank You..

You shouldn't need any Global Statics. Just put the FilterValueList function in the GlobalCode area so any of the LE's can call it.

Quote:


So do I. You still shouldn't need any.

Anyone following this thread that is lost or a little confused should see the post Erika has entered in programming examples. It explains this a little better.

Thanks Erika, this is an excellent little snippet, it does indeed work nicely!

Bob Scott,
I have the previous code with @xuserselectr ( ) also in place. So practically one can use selection like, string.. or ..String..    This is the most commonly used retrival spec available to picklist.  This is just great.

Bharat,

This character is always going to be a problem in a picklist. Under the hood, it indicates that you want to create a submenu. This can actually be quite powerful, but, if you don't want a submenu, you need to either filter slashes out of your data or double the slashes.

If you want 1/2 tsf to appear on a picklist, you need to make it 1//2 tsf.

Quote:


We're working that out now. The automatic sorting behavior of the menu is interfering with creating custom submenus. We're looking for how to get around it.

The applicability is that you could present your user with categorized choices. Instead of a menu that looks like this:
Blue
Green
Large
Medium
Red
Small

...you could offer a menu like this:
Color >
       Blue
       Green
       Red
Size >
       Small
       Medium
       Large

... where the > indicates a popout submenu like you get on the Windows Start Menu.

As indicated earlier, the items with "/" display fine in the list like it should be.  But now @UserSelect does not seem to like that forward shlash!  If I choose anything with forward slash from the displayed list, nothing gets selected. Poor "/", nobody seems to like it.    I believe, I am running out of choices here and its getting extremely difficult to provide refuge to slashes in my data. I am ready to throw towel, unless somebody comes with some solution.    

Erika, I am sorry to annoy you with this one but it seems I am almost there and yet so far.

I am using different picklists for different elements. I have placed the Function that you provided in the Global Code.

var vFieldName as String  (This variable to defined in Global Code earlier and first initialized in Dx1 element exit code) so are the vStart and vEnd variables.

Moreover the following also goes Global Code

====================
var vStart as String
var vEnd as String
var vFieldName as String
var vApplication as String
var vTarget as String
var vDisplay as string

//For PickList

Subroutine PickList_choose( )
var vVals as String
var vFinalList as String
var vSearch as String

If @Right (vfieldName, 2) = ".." and @Left (vFieldName, 2) <> ".." then
     {
     
           vStart = @left (vFieldName, @in (vFieldName, "..") - 1) + @chr (1)
           vEnd = @left (vFieldName,   @in (vFieldName, "..") - 1) + "zzzzzzz"

     }

If @left (@(vFieldName), 2) = ".." and @Right (@(vFieldName), 2) = ".." then
     {
           vSearch = @replace (@(vFieldName), "..", "")
            vFinalList = ""
            vVals = @XListValues(vApplication, vDisplay)  
            vFinalList = FilterValueList(vVals, vSearch)
            @(vFieldName) = @UserSelect(vFinalList)
/* The following statement is added to add an extra "/" into the list value that was picked up by userselect in the preceding statement, so that it will match with the Display1 element value in the external application, where we had to add an extra "/" to correct the problem having "/" in the data. The following statement add that "/"

If @in (@(vFieldName), "/") > 0 then
           @(vFieldName) = @Replace (@(vFieldName), "/", "//")
           //writeln (@(vFieldName))            

@(vFieldName) = @xlookup (vApplication, @(vFieldName), "Display1", vTarget)

     }

End Subroutine


In the Element Exit of Dx1 (Diagnosis1)
===================

If @left (Dx1, 2) = ".." and @right (Dx1, 2) = ".." then

     {
           vApplication = "data\diag.db"
           vTarget = "DiagCode"
           vDisplay = "Diag!Display1"
           vFieldName = "Dx1"
           picklist_choose ( )
            
     }

if @Right (Dx1, 2) = ".." and @Left (Dx1, 2) <> ".." then

     {
           vFieldName = Dx1
           picklist_choose ( )
           
           Dx1 = @xUserselectR ("data\Diag.db", "Diag!Display", "DiagCode", vStart, vEnd)
     }

I am using picklist in 14 Medications elements and 3 Diagnosis elements to begin with.  [ The string.. code part works fine with "/" but not the ..string.. part. The items without slash in them work fine with both the codes.]

The above problem is corrected.

Display and Display1 are the two standard elements of Forms, where I prepare a Display and maupulate it accordingly like, remove any "," or ";" or any characters that I do not wish to have. Since it is standard, I do not have to create and assign any variable to these items.  

Thanks.