arrayselectedbuild( function

arrayselectedbuild(

SEPARATOR

DATABASE

FORMULA

QUERY

)

The arrayselectedbuild( function builds an array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every visible (selected) record in the database (see Text Arrays).

Parameters

This function has four parameters:

separator – is the separator character or characters for the output array.

database – is the database that will be scanned. This database must be currently open. If this parameter is "" then the current database will be scanned. Note: The arrayselectedbuild( function will scan only selected records in the database, invisible records are skipped. If you want to build an array from all records, use the arraybuild( function.

formula – is the formula that will be used to extract data from the database and build each array element. The entire formula must be enclosed in quotes (see Quotes). If the formula results in empty text (“”) for a record then no element is added to the array for that record. The formula usually references fields in the database being scanned. It may also use the seq() function to include the number of each record (within the scan).

query – is an optional formula that determines whether a record should be included in the output array. The entire formula must be enclosed in quotes. For example, the query formula Price > 100 could be used if you only wanted to include items with a price greater than 100 in the array. The query parameter can be omitted, in which case all selected records will be included.

Description

This function creates a Text Array by scanning contents of a database. This function scans only the selected (visible) records in the database. If you want to scan the entire database, including records that are currently deselected (invisible), use the arraybuild( function.

Note: To learn more about the theory and technical details about working with links between databases, see Linking with Another Database. The arrayselectedbuild( function can also be constructed automatically for you with the Relational Workshop wizard.

The first parameter is the separator between array items. In this example, the separator is two characters, a comma followed by a space. The second parameter is the database name. If the database name is left blank, the current database will be scanned. This example builds a list of all the currently selected first names in the database. (Note: If a name appears in the database twice, it will appear in the array twice.)

arrayselectedbuild(", ","",{First}) ☞ Bob, Sue, Mark, Stan, Ralph

The formula parameter allows you to customize the construction of the array.

arrayselectedbuild(", ","",{upper(First)}) ☞ BOB, SUE, MARK, STAN, RALPH

You can use any formula you want, but don’t forget that the formula must be quoted. In the examples above the { and } characters are used for quoting, but Panorama has several different quoting options (see Quotes). Here are some other examples using different quoting characters.

arrayselectedbuild(",","","upper(First)")
arrayselectedbuild(",","",|||upper(First)|||)

It is necessary to pick a quote character that isn’t actually used in the formula itself.

You can add a second, optional formula to limit the records that will be included in the output. In this example, only fish that are less than $1.50 will be included in the array.

arrayselectedbuild(", ","Fish Tank",{Fish},{Price < 1.50}) ☞ Goldfish, Guppy, Neon

This example generates a list of fish that cost more than $30.

arrayselectedbuild(", ","Fish Tank",{Fish},{Price>30})
    ☞ Boeseman's Rainbowfish, Black Ghost Knifefish, Harlequin Rasbora

See Also

appenddataarrays( -- appends two or more data arrays to each other (see Data Arrays).
array( -- extracts a single data item from a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arrayboth -- creates a new array from two existing arrays. The new array contains only items that are in both of the original arrays.
arrayboth( -- creates a new array from two arrays. The new array contains only items that are in both of the original arrays.
arraybuild -- builds an array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every record (including invisible records) in the database (see Text Arrays).
arraybuild( -- builds an array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every record (including invisible records) in the database (see Text Arrays).
arraychange( -- changes the value of a single data item in a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arraycolumn( -- extracts a column from a two dimensional array.
arraycontains( -- checks to see if any element of a text array or a data array matches a specified value.
arraydeduplicate( -- removes duplicate elements from a text array (see Text Arrays).
arraydelete( -- deletes (removes) one or more elements from a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arraydeletevalue( -- deletes any array elements that match the value parameter. This must be an exact match, including upper and lower case. If the value occurs multiple times in the array, every occurence of the value will be removed, with one exception: if the value occurs in two consecutive array elements, only the first occurence will be deleted.
arraydifference -- creates a new array from two existing text arrays. The new array contains only items that are in the first array but *not* in the second array.
arraydifference( -- creates a new array from two existing text arrays. The new array contains only items that are in the first array but *not* in the second array.
arrayelement( -- converts between character positions and array element numbers in a text array.
arrayfilter( -- processes each element of a text array or a data array with a formula (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arrayfirst( -- extracts the first element of a text array.
arrayhack( -- hacks an array by adding, replacing or removing array elements
arrayinsert( -- inserts one or more empty elements into the middle of a text array (see [Text Arrays]).
arrayitemsandwich( -- adds a prefix and/or suffix to each non-blank item in a text array.
arrayitemtrim( -- removes characters from the beginning and/or end of each item in an array.
arraylast( -- extracts the last element of an array.
arraylefttrim( -- removes one or more elements from the beginning of an array.
arraylookup( -- uses a key to look up a value in a two dimensional text array containing key/value pairs (see Text Arrays).
arraymerge( -- merges two text arrays together (see [Text Arrays]).
arraymultisort -- sorts a two-dimensional array on the key of one or more of its columns.
arraymultisort( -- sorts a two-dimensional array on the key of one or more of its columns.
arraynotcontains( -- is the reverse of arraycontains(. it returns *false* if the value is in the array, *true* if it is not in the array.
arraynumericsort( -- sorts a text array in numeric order (see Text Arrays).
arraynumerictotal -- totals all the numeric elements of a text array.
arraynumerictotal( -- totals all the numeric elements of a text array.
arrayrandomize -- reorders an array in random order.
arrayrandomize( -- reorders an array in random order.
arrayrange( -- extracts a series of data items from a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arrayrelocate -- moves one or more items in a text array to a new position.
arrayrelocate( -- moves one or more items to a new position in a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arrayreplacevalue( -- changes array elements that match a specified value.
arrayreverse( -- reverses the order of the elements in a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arrayreverselookup( -- uses a value to look up a key in a two dimensional text array containing key/value pairs (see Text Arrays).
arraysearch( -- searches a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays) to see if it contains a specific value.
arrayselectedbuild -- builds an array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every visible (selected) record in the database (see Text Arrays).
arraysize( -- returns the number of elements in a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arraysort -- sorts the elements in an array (see Text Arrays).
arraysort( -- alphabetizes (A-Z) the elements in a text array (see [Text Arrays]).
arraystrip -- strips blank elements from an array.
arraystrip( -- removes any blank elements from a text array or a data array (see Text Arrays and Data Arrays).
arraytableceiling( -- looks up a value in a double column table, similar to the table( function but from an array instead of a database.
arraytablefloor( -- looks up a value in a double column table, similar to the table( function but from an array instead of a database.
arraytoggle -- "toggles" a value within an array.
arraytopythonlist( -- converts a Panorama array into a Python list.
arraytrim( -- removes one or more elements from the end of an array.
arrayunpropagate -- scans an array from top to bottom, removing duplicate values in a row.
arrayunpropagate( -- scans an array from top to bottom, removing duplicate values in a row.
chararray( -- extracts a single character from text.
commalist( -- converts a text array (see Text Arrays) into an English list, with items separated by a comma and a space, except for the last two items which are separated by the word *and* and spaces.
commatocr( -- converts a comma delimited array into a carriage return delimited array.
csvtotsv( -- converts comma separated text into tab separated text.
Data Arrays -- A numbered collection of data values.
dataarray( -- creates a data array from zero or more separate values (see Data Arrays).
dataarrayappend( -- appends one or more values to the end of an existing array.
dataarraybuild( -- builds a data array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every record (including invisible records) in the database (see Data Arrays).
dataarrayinsert( -- inserts one or more values into the middle of an existing array.
dataarrayselectedbuild( -- builds a data array by scanning a database and creating an array element for every visible record in the database (see Data Arrays).
exportdataarray( -- converts a data array into a text array (see Data Arrays and Text Arrays).
extract( -- extracts a single data item from a text array, and can also be used to count the number of items in the array.
generatedataarray( -- generates a new data array based on a formula (see Data Arrays and Text Arrays).
getstructurevalue( -- extracts a value from a structure of nested Data Dictionaries and/or Data Arrays.
htmlarraytable -- generates an HTML table from an arrray.
htmldatamerge -- uses a template to generate HTML you want from a database.
htmldatatable -- generates an HTML table from selected data in the current database.
htmltabletoarray -- converts an HTML table into a text array.
importdataarray( -- converts a text array into a data array (see Data Arrays and Text Arrays).
lineitemarray( -- converts the data in a set of line item fields into a text array (see Text Arrays).
linescontain( -- checks to see if any line in a carriage return separated array matches the specified value.
linesnotcontain( -- is the reverse of the linescontain( function.
linesort( -- sorts lines of text in ascending order.
linestrip( -- removes any blank lines from the text.
makenumberedarray -- generates a numeric sequenced text array.
makenumberedarray( -- generates a numeric sequenced text array.
randomarrayelement( -- returns a random element from an array.
randomline( -- returns a random line from multiple lines of text.
randomword( -- returns a random word from a list of words.
setfieldproperties -- modifies one or more properties (name, data type, formula, etc.) of the current field.
superarraybuild -- scans a database to create a text array. This statement is is similar to arraybuild, but with a number of additional options (see Text Arrays).
tabarray( -- extracts the nth element from a tab delimited array.
tagarray( -- builds an array (see Text Arrays) containing the body of all the specified tags (usually HTML tags) in the text.
Text Arrays -- A numbered collection of text values.
tsvtocsv( -- converts tab separated text into comma separated text.
tsvtojson( -- converts tab separated text into JSON formatted text.

History

Version	Status	Notes
10.0	Updated	Carried over from Panorama 6.0, but now includes an optional query formula that can be used to limit the records included in the output. In addition, this function is now a native function instead of being implemented with a procedure for greatly improved performance. More than one character is now allowed for use as the separator parameter.