A Panorama database may contain dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of records. Finding a particular piece of information could be like locating a needle in a haystack. Fortunately Panorama can easily locate information for you.
Panorama’s search capabilities are very powerful, so we’ve split the documentation for this feature across several pages in the documentation.
- Date Search Options -- searching dates within a database.
- Favorite Searches -- saving and recalling favorite searches.
- Find & Replace Dialog -- finding and replacing a word or phrase (with an option to use a regular expression).
- Find/Select Dialog -- using a dialog to search for specific data.
- Formula Search -- searching with a formula.
- Handling Empty Selections in Code -- dealing with an empty selection data set.
- Numeric Search Options -- searching numbers within a database.
- Record Search Options -- searching via record attributes.
- Refining a Selection -- selecting a subset or superset of a previous selection."
- Searching -- searching a database to find or select information.
- Select Duplicates Dialog -- opens the standard Select Duplicates dialog sheet.
- Selecting with the Context Menu -- searching for information related to the current cell.
- Text Search Options -- searching text within a database.
Finding vs. Selecting
Panorama has two ways of locating information, finding and selecting. Finding is much like looking up a name in a phone book—Panorama points out the location of the information you are looking for. For example, you might ask Panorama to find a phone number or a price in a catalog. Panorama will locate the information, and position the database to that spot. In this example we’ve asked Panorama to find Blue Cross.
Selecting is like creating a whole new database containing only the information you are looking for. All the selected data remains visible, while everything else temporarily vanishes. For example, you might ask Panorama to select all customers that have purchased from you in the last six months, or all transactions over $250,000.
Deciding whether to find or select is your choice. Usually find is used when you want to locate a specific item like an address or price, while select is used when you want to locate a set of information. You can also combine the two techniques —- for example, first select a subset of the database, then find a specific item within that subset.
See Also
- checkemptyselection -- notifies the user if a selection failed, and reverts to the previous selection.
- Date Search Options -- searching dates within a database.
- Favorite Searches -- saving and recalling favorite searches.
- find -- locates the first visible record in the active database for which the specified condition is true.
- Find & Replace Dialog -- finding and replacing a word or phrase (with an option to use a regular expression).
- Find/Select Dialog -- using a dialog to search for specific data.
- findabove -- locates the next previous record (above the current record) in the active database for which the specified condition is true.
- findbackwards -- locates the last visible record in the active database for which the specified condition is true.
- findbelow -- locates the next visible record (below the current record) in the active database for which the specified condition is true.
- findid -- locates a record in the active database by its ID number (see info("serverrecordid").
- findnth -- finds the nth (2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.) record that matches a true-false test.
- findselect -- opens the standard *Find/Select* dialog.
- findselectdialog -- opens the standard *Find/Select* dialog.
- Formula Search -- searching with a formula.
- Handling Empty Selections in Code -- dealing with an empty selection data set.
- ifselect -- combines the select and if info("empty") operations into a single statement.
- info("empty") -- returns true or false depending on the result of the last select operation. If no records were selected the function will return true, otherwise it will return false.
- info("found") -- returns true or false depending on whether the last *find* or *next* statement was successful.
- info("selectduplicatesortwarning") -- works with the selectduplicatesnowarning statement to ascertain whether or not the database was sorted correctly when last search for duplicates was performed.
- nextmatch -- locates the next visible record in the active database for which the condition specified in the most recent Find statement is true.
- Numeric Search Options -- searching numbers within a database.
- pleaseselectall -- makes sure that all records are selected.
- previousmatch -- locates the previous (closer to the top) visible record in the active database for which the condition specified in the most recent Find statement is true.
- Record Search Options -- searching via record attributes.
- Refining a Selection -- selecting a subset or superset of a previous selection."
- removeselected -- deletes all selected records from the database.
- removeunselected -- deletes all unselected records from the database.
- safeselect -- makes visible only those records for the active database for which the specified condition is true. If no records match, the previous selection is retained.
- safeselectwithin -- makes visible only those previously selected records in the active database for which the specified condition is true. If no records match, the previous selection is retained.
- search( -- searches through an item of text looking for a character, word or phrase. If it finds an exact match (including upper/lower case) with the character, word or phrase, it returns its position within the text item. If it does not find the character, word or phrase, it returns zero.
- searchanycase( -- searches through an item of text looking for a character, word or phrase. If it finds a match (upper/lower case may be different) with the character, word or phrase, it returns its position within the text item. If it does not find the character, word or phrase, it returns zero.
- select -- makes visible only those records for the active database for which the specified condition is true.
- Select Duplicates Dialog -- opens the standard *Select Duplicates* dialog sheet.
- selectadditional -- adds unselected records to a previously selected group if they match the true-false test.
- selectall -- makes every record in the database visible.
- selectduplicates -- selects records containing duplicate information in the database.
- selectduplicatesnowarning -- selects records containing duplicate information in the database.
- Selecting with the Context Menu -- searching for information related to the current cell.
- selectreverse -- makes every visible record invisible, and every invisible record visible.
- selectwithin -- uses a Boolean formula to exclude records from a previously selected group.
- Text Search Options -- searching text within a database.
History
| Version | Status | Notes |
| 10.0 | No Change | Carried over from Panorama 6.0 |