Word Strings

Word strings are maps used for placing text in a field, avoiding the necessity to include text directly in a QA Build program. Because they are stored as maps, word strings can be easily manipulated using the Map Editor. This feature is particularly useful for multi language applications, because it allows you to take advantage of language support. Word strings are stored on the @WDATA mapset of your database.

The text stored in the maps cannot be accessed from within QA Build, but you can use word strings for substitution in formulas. For example, if you wish to display a message depending on the result of a calculation, you might set up a character field with the following formula:

if x>0 then "Positive" else if x<0 then "Negative" else "Zero"

This formula assumes your application is in English. If your application runs in more than one language, you could set up three word strings POSITIVE, NEGATIVE and ZERO and set up a map with the appropriate text for each string. To display the text, the type of the @ field is changed to W and the formula is changed to:

if x>0 then POSITIVE else if x<0 then NEGATIVE else ZERO

For each language your application runs in, you would enter the words for positive, negative and zero for the three word strings.

You are recommended to use maps wherever possible in multi lingual applications, because they make translation easy. If you wish to manipulate text from different languages within formulas, you are recommended to set up a table with a language selector as one of the keys.

To define a word string:

  1. Enter a name for the string
  2. Select word string as the function type
  3. For the Function/macro text field, enter a description for the string
  4. For the Associated map, create a map which displays the message. You have the option to create, copy, edit, delete, or change the number of the word string maps

To display the string:

  1. Add a @ field to the field processing list of your procedure. Select W for the data type
  2. In the formula for the field, select the name of the word string your wish to display. As the name of the word string evaluates to the number of the associated map, you can also select word strings numerically by specifying the number of the map containing the text

When you are printing a word string over another field, you must ensure that the word string text contains more characters than the over printed field. If you are using word strings for printing numbers as words, you may wish to take advantage of the Over another and Beside another output methods for printing. See Form Output Methods.