why the IF # x (*) = 'command does not work?

, ,
1

Would be possible that would help me understand the following situation:
DEFINE DATA LOCAL
TAB # 1 (A10 / 1:50)
END-DEFINE
MOVE '1111 'TO # TAB (5)
IF # TAB (*) = ’ ’
WRITE ‘XXXX’
ELSE
WRITE ‘YYYY’
END-IF
END

HE ALWAYS WRITE XXXX.

as there is an occurrence should be filled out by yyyy
If I put IF # TAB (5) works normally. He leaves to write yyyy

2 
IF #TAB (*) = ' '

means “if any occurrence of #TAB is blank.”

3

Arrays can be tricky. Be very careful with negative logic:

IF #TAB(*) NE '1111'

means "If ANY occurrence of #TAB is NOT ‘1111’. In your example this would return TRUE.

IF #TAB(*) NE ' '

This would also return TRUE because occurrence 5 is not blank.

4

thanks for the help. problem solved

5

Just a warning:

As noted by Ralph

IF #TAB (*) = ’ ’ is shorthand for IF #TAB (1) = ’ ’ OR #TAB (2) = ’ ’ OR #TAB (3) = ’ ’ etc
in other words, an OR condition

HOWEVER

IF #TAB () = #OTHER-TAB () is shorthand for IF #TAB (1) = #OTHER-TAB (1)
AND #TAB (2) = #OTHER-TAB (2)
AND #TAB (3) = #OTHER-TAB (3) etc
in other words, an AND condition

And, as noted by Jerome, if you use negatives, it gets very tricky, for example

define data local
1 #a (a1/1:10)
1 #b (a1/10)
end-define
*** move ‘q’ to #a (3)
if #a () ne #b()
write ‘not equal satisfied’
else
write ‘noooooo’
end-if
end

Run as is; the answer is noooooo

now get rid of the asterisks before the MOVE.

The answer is still noooooo

For the IF to be TRUE, all a-b pairs must be not equal.

in other words it is:

IF #TAB () NE #OTHER-TAB () is shorthand for IF #TAB (1) NE #OTHER-TAB (1)
AND #TAB (2) NE #OTHER-TAB (2)
AND #TAB (3) NE #OTHER-TAB (3) etc