Chuck’s Academy of

Function Academy

An ACEware Webinar

Welcome from Jacksonville, FL!

Today we will dissect . . .

• What is a function?

• What can a function do?

• Writing report functions

• Function writing tips

• Embedding functions

• Common errors

• Function help

What is a function?

Report functions are special tools

or utilities that have a specific purpose

What can a function do?

• Display a field not in the report cursor

• Format information

• Perform calculations

• Do a specific task after the report runs

Writing Report Functions

• Functions consist of:– Name– Parameters– Punctuation

Begin with a function namefollowed by parenthesis

ADDNAME ( )

NICEDATE ( )

GETCEU ( )

Add the details

ADDNAME (nmid,”nmdphone”)

GETCEU (rgcrse)

NICEDATE (cobegdate)

How do we knowwhat details are necessary?

Student ManagerOnline Help!

From the online help . . .Function name

and what it will do

Where you can use the function

You must supply these piecesExtras!

Examples!

ADDNAME(nmid, ”nmdphone”)Function name

Beginning parenthesis

First required parameter (from which table do you want to pull the information)

Comma

Opening quotes

Second parameter (which fielddo you want to pull)

Closing quotes

Ending parenthesis

A few tips to remember

Parameters are always separated by commas

Use opening and closing parentheses to begin and

end parameters

Single quotes or double quotes are acceptable

You can combine or embed functions

Commonly you will need to include a field not in the cursor, and format the same field.

NICEDATE(addcudfs(cocrse,”cudfd1”))

NICETIME(addcrse(number,'cocrsetm'))

The rules

are almost the same

Common errors

Field doesn’t exist

The field you want to use doesn’t exist in the cursor

Use an “add” function to fix the problem

Syntax error

Usually mismatched quotes, missing parentheses or missing commas

Check your punctuation!

Operator/Operand Mismatch

You’ve mixed numeric and character field types

Read about the transform function!

Where will I find a list of functions?

Let’s look at “add” functions

ADDCRSE( )

ADDREG( )

ADDCRSE (on an invoice)

ADDREG

How do you knowif a field is in the cursor?

That’s plenty for today

At our next meeting . . .

Specific functions

Specialty functionsDate StampingJustDoIt

Questions?

We’ll be back in Manhattan, KS!Part 2

June 15th, 1:00 pm central time