All,
Thanks for suggestions Matt Wilkie, J Tessier, Nick Seigal, David Hawke,
Kumar, Pieter Geert van den Beukel, Thomas Cebecauer, Ryan Belyea, Craig
Hunter, Collen Martin, Lynn Hay, and Mike Lent.  Everyone's response was
very similar, I am including Nick's answer since it summed the solutions
very well.  Thanks again everyone!


Andrew MacDougall
First Union National Bank



Original Question:
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
All,
I am having trouble trying to calculate a field with Avenue.  I would like
to do this:
     [New_Legend]= [Bank].left(1) + "N"

the problem surrounds the "N".  I can't just use:
     theFTab.Calculate("[Bank].left(1) + "N"", x)

because there are too many quotes.  I tried this:
     n = "N"
     theFTab.Calculate("[Bank].left(1) + n.quote", x)

but nothing happened.  What am I doing wrong?  Similarly, I would like to
be able to set up some selection sets using text strings, ie:
     ([Bank]= "FUNB") and ([Accuracy] = nil)

but the following code won't work either:
     theBitmap = theFTab.GetSelection
     expr = "([Bank] = "FUNB") and ([Accuracy] = nil)"
     theFTab.Query(expr, theBitmap, #VTAB_SELTYPE_NEW)
     theFTab.UpdateSelection

Again, the problem with quotes.  Eventually I would like to be able to
create my selections, then calculate the correct values for the whole FTab.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!




Nick's Answer:
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Quotes in strings can be a real pain...

PROBLEM 1 -- CALCULATE
A tricky point here is that there need to be two pluses if you want to use
the Quote request.

    calcString = "[Bank].left(1) +" ++ "N".Quote
    theFTab.Calculate( calcString, x )

Another trick is that double-quotes work as quotes inside a quoted string
(too many quotes can get confusing).

    calcString = "[Bank].left(1) + ""N"""
    theFTab.Calculate( calcString, x )


PROBLEM 2 -- QUERY

    theBitmap = theFTab.GetSelection
    expr = "([Bank] = ""FUNB"") and ([Accuracy] = nil)"
    theFTab.Query(expr, theBitmap, #VTAB_SELTYPE_NEW)
    theFTab.UpdateSelection


Nick Seigal
Criterion Planners/Engineers
Portland, Oregon
www.crit.com