Help on decide statement

, ,
1

Can someone help interpret this for me:
DECIDE ON EVERY VALUE OF TRANS.CAT(*)
VALUE ‘D’
…
VALUE ’ M’
…

I’m unclear about how the (*) affects the statement.

TIA,
Jennifer

2

Think of it this way:

IF CAT(*) = 'D'

is the same as:

IF CAT(1) = 'D'
OR CAT(2) = 'D'
OR CAT(3) = 'D'
...

i.e. If any occurence in the array matches ‘D’, the expression evaluates to TRUE.

You have to be careful with NE:

IF CAT(*) NE 'D'

is the same as:

IF CAT(1) NE 'D'
OR CAT(2) NE 'D'
OR CAT(3) NE 'D'
...

i.e. If any occurence in the array does not match ‘D’, the expression is TRUE. The only time where this evaluates to FALSE is if every occurence in the array contains ‘D’.

3

Excellent example! Thanks!!