topic Re: Validate column name exists before graphing in Discussions

Validate column name exists before graphing

senatorx — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:03:32 GMT

Hi, I am trying to validate that a data table contains a certain column name prior to creating graphs:

hasname1 = 0;
     for (colval == 1, colval <= Ncols(dt), colval++,
           colName = Column Name(colval);
           if ( colName == "name1",
                 hasname1 = 1;

);
if (hasname1 == 1,
//create graph
);

However, the comparison never returns true because "name1" is a string data type, and the column name returned from Column Name(colval) is some other data type.

How can I get a string value from a Column Name to make a valid string comparison?

Thanks!

Re: Validate column name exists before graphing

ms — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:38:24 GMT

You can use dt << get column names(string); to get column names as a string instead of a column object.

Try this single line of code. Should assign 1 or 0 to hasname1.

hasname1 = Contains( dt << get column names( string ), "name1" );

Re: Validate column name exists before graphing

senatorx — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 04:26:07 GMT

Works, great, and much shorter than what I was doing. Thank you.