Based on variable

[#1]

Hello all,

I have a table where the the columns are actual and budget figures, where the names of the budget columns are that of the actuals but with the prefix 'B'. I try to create a variable based on that of another but I can't reference the contents correctly. This example should show the problem where the value of 'BValue' is 'BColA' rather than 101,124,121,105 I am trying to achieve:

test1:
LOAD * INLINE [
ColA, ColB, ColC, BColA, BColB, BColC
12, 15, 18, 101, 108, 114
25, 20, 17, 124, 122, 106
1, 29, 5, 121, 120, 117
6, 7, 11, 105, 108, 107
];

set vCol = 'ColA';
set vBCol = 'B' & '$(vCol)';
test2:
load recno() as recno,
$(vCol) as value,
$(vBCol) as BValue
resident test1;

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Gordon

[danielrozental · Accepted solution]

I believe you should use let instead of set for it to work.

let vCol = 'ColA';

let vBCol = 'B' & '$(vCol)';

[Oleg_Troyansky]

Actually, Set is what we typically use for storing expressions that will be evaluated later...

I'm puzzled - in my mind, your syntax should work... I got the expected result with the following:

set vCol = 'ColA';
set vBCol = B$(vCol);

I also got the expected result using LET:

let vCol = 'ColA';
let vBCol = 'B' & '$(vCol)';

I still can't explain why this one works, and the other one doesn't...

Oleg

[#4]

Thanks Daniel and Oleg,

The solution is in using LET instead of SET. LET evaluates so technically the statements should be:

set vCol = 'ColA';
let vBCol = 'B' & '$(vCol)';

Regards,

Gordon