There's an old problem with Table Builder where the formula of the first calculated column may drop out. For all I know the bug's corrected, but I'm still on 3.61.

Anyway - could those of you who ever had that problem please tell me how sinister the results could be? I always thought the symbolic field value just became null - like if there never was a formula. But now I have a case where the formula of an integer symbolic had dropped out and the field value became some string. This happened in a child window, and the string was a value returned by a dialog of mine to a control in a different child a bit earlier. The design of my app and the programming is a bit convoluted around that point, and I dread having to redo the stuff. If the anomaly could be explained simply by the formula dropping out I'd feel a lot easier.

- Oystein -

After I put the formula back the problem disappeared.

And the thought strikes me that the problem might simply be caused by the absense of the formula, not the way it disappeared. Tell me - is the value of a symbolic without a formula undefined? Or is it - as I originally thought - null?

- Oystein -

Oystein ..

I think an empty formula line in a symbolic is undefined. It may just use the current value of @ANS. How did you save the symbolic that way anyway? I thought that table-builder wouldn't let that happen. Old tatty AREV won't since the %PROTECT.SPEC% item enforces this. Certainly, you can save a symbolic with System Editor or programatically. I'm surprised thet Form Designer didn't cough with an error loading the dictionary .. but what the heck.

Don Miller

Don,

Table Builder lets you define symbolics without a formula. But the tables I work with currently I made with a program of my own. Perhaps I slipped with something. But I haven't noticed other symptoms.

Anyway - I'm aware of the problem now.

Thanks.

- Oystein -

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