Function Names
table describe, table describe ignore case, table describe selected rows, table describe selected rows ignore caseDescription
This function examins the contents in a specified column and places the description into another specified
table column. The content examination follows two steps:
1. If 6 function parameters are provided (incl. 'name of lookup table', 'lookup pattern column', 'lookup description column'),
then the lookup table will be consulted first. The strings in the target table are compared with the patterns where the
equal operator = is used, supporting wildcard symbols. Such a table is suitable to pick up application specific
information patterns such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, decision answers (Yes, Now) and social security numbers.
The lookup scheme allows to take over multiple columns, e.g. by providing a category and a sub-category of the value checked.
2 If only 3 function parameters are provided, or if the 1st step did not result in a match, then the contents will be checked
for standard patterns as described in the function describe(). Resulting description may be 'blank', 'numeric', 'date', 'word', etc.
In this case, only one column may be specified for the descriptions to put into the target table.
The specific function name table describe ignore case ignores cases in step 1 for the patterns. In this case, a pattern containing
'yes,no' will also match with values like 'YES' and 'No'.
Call as: procedure
Restrictions
Indirect parameter passing is disabled
This function provides a table context for partial table specifications with table name and row number for selected function parameters
Parameter count
3,6
Parameters
| No. | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1. input |
string | target table name The target table must exist. |
| Opt. 2. code |
expression :string |
Expression to select rows Applicable to table describe selected rows and table describe selected rows ignore case: |
| 2. / 3. input |
table column | Column with strings See table columns as function parameters for general ruling for this parameter.
|
| 3. / 4. input |
table column | Columns for descriptions The descriptions related to the strings checked will be inserted into this column.
Multipe columns can be specified, e.g. for a category and a sub-category to describe the string (e.g. weekday names, and language used for weekday names)
See table columns as function parameters for general ruling for this parameter.
|
| Opt. 4./5. input |
string | Name of lookup table The existing lookup table will be used first to check the target columns for patterns in the lookup table in order to support application specific descriptions |
| Opt. 5./6. input |
table column | Lookup pattern column This column contains the lookup patterns. All wildcard symbols are supported here. Do not put the contents into single or double quotation marks unless they are
seen as part of the patterns, e.g. actually checking for "example", a 9-character string.
|
| Opt. 6./7. input |
table column | Lookup description columns This column contains the corresponding descriptions. Example: Specify "U.S. social security number" if pattern is ###-##-####, a nine-digit number with two hyphens in fixed positions.
Multipe columns can be specified, e.g. for a category and a sub-category to describe the string (e.g. weekday names, and language used for weekday names)
See table columns as function parameters for general ruling for this parameter.
|
Examples
table initialize( target table,
{ Examples, This is a sentence, 123, 123.45, '+1 555 1212', yes, No, date(today), date(now), Tuesday, Dienstag, Hello, nick.nicelson@gmail.com, '(212) 555-1212' } );
table initialize( lookup table,
{ { Check, Result, Language },
{ '+#*#,(###)*###*####', phone number },
{ '*@*.*', 'e-mail address' },
{ 'monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,saturday,sunday', weekday, English },
{ 'montag,dienstag,mittwoch,donnerstag,freitag,samstag,sonntag', weekday, German },
{ 'no,yes', answer } } );
table describe ignore case( target table, Examples, {Descr,Lang}, lookup table, Check, {Result,Language} );
table list( target table );Output
0 : Examples | Descr | Lang
1 : This is a sentence | line |
2 : 123 | integer |
3 : 123.45 | numeric |
4 : +1 555 1212 | phone number |
5 : yes | answer |
6 : No | answer |
7 : 2024-10-19 | date |
8 : 2024-10-19 21:56:40 | date time |
9 : Tuesday | weekday | English
10 : Dienstag | weekday | German
11 : Hello | word |
12 : nick.nicelson@gmail.com | e-mail address |
13 : (212) 555-1212 | phone number |