topic Re: Help with contains within if else in Discussions

Help with contains within if else

ENTHU — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 17:40:23 GMT

Hi,

I have written the following piece of code which checks if/not a list contains a character and performs some steps accordingly.

For some reason, the script doesnt check for "if contains" condition and always executes the else part.I think I have a silly mistake here.

Clear Symbols();
Delete Symbols();
clear globals();
 
 

dtNext = Open("C:\temp\output.csv","invisible");
Summarize(dtNext, testlist = By(:test));
show(testlist );
SAVEPATH = "C:\temp\";
If(contains(testlist ,"M"),

Macrodt=New Table("test_type",
New Column("test_type",
Character,
Nominal,
Set Values( {"Morning"})
),
invisible
);




, //else
Macrodt=New Table("test_type",
New Column("test_type",
Character,
Nominal,
Set Values( {"Evening"})
),
invisible
);
);

//Save macro file
Macrodt<<Save(SAVEPATH||"test_type.csv");

Re: Help with contains within if else

Jeff_Perkinson — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 17:50:32 GMT

There's no obvious mistake in your code. We'll need some more details to help figure where the confusion is.

Here's an example showing that your prototype is correct.

dts = {"$SAMPLE_DATA\Fitness.jmp", "$SAMPLE_DATA\Big Class.jmp"}; 
 
For( i = 1, i <= N Items( dts ), i++,
	dtNext = Open( dts[i] );
	Summarize( dtNext, testlist = By( :age ) );

	Show( testlist );

	If( Contains( testlist, "42" ), 

		Show( "testlist contains 42" );
	
	, //else
 
		Show( "testlist doesn't contain 42" )
	);
);

The log:

/*:

testlist = {"38", "40", "42", "43", "44", "45", "47", "48", "49", "50", "51", "52", "54", "57"};
"testlist contains 42";
testlist = {"12", "13", "14", "15", "16", "17"};
"testlist doesn't contain 42";

Re: Help with contains within if else

jerry_cooper — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 19:21:20 GMT

As @Jeff_Perkinson suggests, more info would help, but I'll take a stab at what I think may be a source of confusion for you. The "Contains" function can be used on a list OR a string... if you are looking for whether any list item contains a specific character, your "If" statement will not produce the desired result as written. If that is your intent, you could surround your "testlist" variable with the Concat Items function in the "If" statement, i.e. Concat Items(testlist) evaluates to a single string made up of all of the list items stitched together. Now the Contains function will return a positive response when looking for a specific character if it exists in the new string.

Hope this helps.

Re: Help with contains within if else

ENTHU — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 22:51:37 GMT

I used cocncatitems function and it worked.
Thanks