Null, zero and empty in Search Criteria Data cells with nothing in them
Apparently in the database world a datafield can be 'null', 'zero', 'blank' or 'empty' and these are DIFFERENT! For the non-database orientated person the differences can lead to confusion. The classic situation is that you want to do a query via Manage-something to find the data records where a datafield is empty, blank, or not filled in. For some datafields you can put in '=isnull' into the query to return records where the datafield has no data. An example (as of April 2009) is the 'Field' datafield in Manage-Matches.
However, some datafields get an 'empty' value, not a 'null' value if there is no data in the datafield. An example is the Team in the Matches Table (again as of April 2009). To look for Matches where there is no Team name specified you would need to enter '=isempty' into the Team fragment box.
'=isnull' and '=isempty' are not set up everywhere in all the criteria boxes. Well theoretically there could be a Team called the 'Beercan=isempty' and then it would be difficult to search for this team using the fragment '=isempty'.
There are six different special commands. They are:
- =isnull
- =isnotnull
- =isblank
- =isnotblank
- =isempty
- =isnotemptyTopics
The '=' sign is established in the Setting=Criteria. You can change to use a different prefix. The current prefix is =
For more info see the RidgeStar Features page. Features
Personal and Site Criteria
Via Administrator:Options-Criteria you can see what criteria have been set for each 'form'. csofxx is the format for site default criteria fxx is the format for individual criteria The xx have some relationship to the actual form, but it may be obscure. For example fri is the Form Referee-Inquiry It can happen when a change is made to a form that the site or personal criteria that exist no longer do what the User intended, but may actually return a completely different query Result List. Keep this in mind when changing forms - for example when a form datafield changes from pulldown to fragment. The simplest solution, is to delete all the criteria associated with the form. Or you can go in and edit the criteria for people. |
