item (Statistical Operator)

Type

Statistical Operator

Purpose

The item statistical operator tells DataEase to display the specified field value from each processed record in addition to any specified statistics. The result appears as a list item in the detail area of a procedure's output.

Syntax

FIELDNAME : item [other statistical operators] ;|.

Usage

When you create a report using Query by Model, each specified field value is automatically included in the report output. In a similar way, when you generate report output using a DQL procedure, if no other statistics are specified for a field, the field value is automatically included in the report output. However, if statistics are specified on a field, the field value is included in the output only if the field name is followed by the item operator.

There is an important difference between the item statistical operator and the item conditional statistical operator (described on the following page). The item statistical operator tells DataEase to include the list item in the report output when other statistics are specified. Theitem conditional statistical operator tells DataEase to evaluate a comparison and return a yes or no answer indicating if the comparison is true or not.

Example

for MEMBERS ;

list records

LAST NAME in order ;

TOTAL DUE : item min max sum .

end

This script tells DataEase: (1) Process all the MEMBERS records in alphabetical order by LAST NAME, (2) list each member's TOTAL DUE (item), (3) list the smallest TOTAL DUE (min), (4) list the largest TOTAL DUE (max), and (5) list the total of all the TOTAL DUE amounts combined (sum).

The output from this script might look as follows: