Progress
Language Reference


ENTRY Function

Interfaces
OS
SpeedScript
All
All
Yes

Returns a character string entry from a list based on an integer position.

SYNTAX

ENTRY ( element , list [ , character ] ) 

element

An integer value that corresponds to the position of a character string in a list of values. If the value of element does not correspond to an entry in the list, Progress raises the ERROR condition. If the value of element is unknown (?), ENTRY returns an unknown value. If element is less than or equal to 0, or is larger than the number of elements in list, ENTRY returns an error.

list

A list of character strings. Separate entries with commas. If the value of list is unknown (?), ENTRY returns an unknown value.

character

A delimiter you define for the list. The default is a comma. This allows functions to operate on non-comma-separated lists. If you use an alphabetic character, this delimiter is case sensitive.

EXAMPLES

This procedure returns the day of the week that corresponds to a date the user enters. The WEEKDAY function evaluates the date and returns, as an integer, the day of the week for that date. The ENTRY function uses that integer to indicate a position in a list of the days of the week.

r-entry.p
DEFINE VARIABLE datein AS DATE.
DEFINE VARIABLE daynum AS INTEGER.
DEFINE VARIABLE daynam AS CHARACTER INITIAL "Sunday,
        Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday".

SET datein LABEL "Enter a date (mm/dd/yy)".
daynum = WEEKDAY(datein).
DISPLAY ENTRY(daynum,daynam) FORMAT "x(9)" LABEL "is a" WITH SIDE-LABELS. 

This is an example of a list separated by dashes instead of commas. The result is “helvetica”.

r-entry2.p
DEFINE VARIABLE typeface AS CHARACTER.typeface = 
"-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-210-*-*-*-*-iso*-*".
DISPLAY ENTRY(3, typeface, "-") FORMAT "x(16)". 

The next procedure looks up UNIX login IDs in a small password array and returns the name of the user.

r-entry3.p
DEFINE VARIABLE login-name AS CHARACTER FORMAT "x(10)". 
DEFINE VARIABLE real-name  AS CHARACTER FORMAT "x(20)".
DEFINE VARIABLE loop AS INTEGER. 
/*username:password:uid:gid:gcos-field:home-dir:login-shell */
DEFINE VARIABLE passwd AS CHARACTER EXTENT 5 INITIAL [
  "kulig::201:120:Clyde Kulig:/users/kulig",
  "gegetskas::202:120:Neal Gegetskas:/users/geget:",
  "bertrand::203:120:Rich Bertrand:/users/bertr:",
  "lepage::204:120:Gary Lepage:/users/lepag:",
  "wnek::205:120:Jordyn Wnek:/users/wnekj:"
    ]. 
REPEAT: 
  SET login-name. 
  real-name = ?. 
  DO loop = 1 TO 5: 
    IF ENTRY(1,passwd[loop],":") = login-name THEN LEAVE. 
  END. 
  IF loop > 5 THEN
    MESSAGE "Sorry, but" login-name 
      "is not in my password file.". 
  ELSE
    real-name = ENTRY(5,passwd[loop],":"). 
  DISPLAY real-name. 
END. 

NOTE

The ENTRY function is double-byte enabled. It can return an entry that contains double-byte characters from a specified list and the character delimiter can be a double-byte character.

SEE ALSO

LOOKUP Function


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