List Data
The List Data command allows you to display data stored in the current database. The output can be directed to the screen, a file or the printer. Either the entire database or a selected portion can be displayed, and the order of the data fields can be modified. The output can also be sorted by one or more fields.
Fields to display lists all of the fields in the current database. Choose any number of fields to view and/or print.
The Layout Options button accesses a menu that allows you to control how the data is displayed.
There are five menu items behind the Layout Options button:
The Field Formats menu item displays a spreadsheet that has a row for each field you have selected for display. (You must select the fields you want to display before using this item.) Following is a sample spreadsheet:
Order Field Name Sort Key Width Numeric or SSN Format 1 Name 25 2 Sex 8 3 SSNum 1 13 XXX-XX-9999 4 Birthdate 12 5 Salary 13 $9,999,999.99 The Field Name column is for reference and cannot be changed, but the other columns can be modified as follows:
Order: This column controls the ordering of fields in the listing. To change the order, move the cursor to the desired field and enter a new order number. For example, if you wanted the SSNum field to be listed first, you would move to the third row under Order and enter a 1. The row for SSNum will move to the top of the list. This process can be repeated until the fields are in the desired order.
Sort Key: This column lets you specify how the records are to be sorted in the output. To sort by a single field in ascending order, enter a 1 in the row for the sort field. To sort in descending order, enter -1. To sort by two fields, enter 1 (or -1) in the row for the primary sort key and enter 2 (or -2) in the row for the secondary sort key. The output will be sorted according to the primary key, and where there are duplicate values in the primary key the records will be sorted by the secondary key. You may sort by any number of fields, and you may freely mix positive and negative numbers to indicate ascending and descending sorts. If this column is blank, the output is sorted by the record ID field supplied by ProVal (regardless of whether RecID has been selected for display).
Width: This column specifies how much space should be allowed for display of the field in the output. (If you intend to save the data to a file and to open it with software that allows you to further modify column width, you may decide to simply ignore the Width values in the Field Formats spreadsheet.) The default values are based on data width in the Data Dictionary and the width of the column titles, but you can increase or decrease them for the purpose of this listing. Regardless of the widths you specify, however, ProVal will always expand columns to accommodate the data for the selected records so that all selected data can be viewed.
Numeric or SSN Format: This column controls how numeric and social security number fields are represented in the output. For both of these data types, the default format within List Data is determined by the Formatting Style you specified in the Data Dictionary, but you can override the default using the same options available in the Data Dictionary. For numeric fields, you may specify the number of decimals to be displayed, as well as whether dollar signs and/or commas are to appear in the formatted data. For social security number fields, you may specify to include hyphens in the format, as well as indicate whether to display full social security numbers (each digit represented with a "9" in the format) or to obscure some of the digits (using an "X" in the format, in place of a "9") in the formatted data. This column takes precedence over the width that is specified in the preceding column; when you enter a format, the width will be updated to be at least as wide as the selected format.
Column Titles
The Column Titles menu item displays a spreadsheet that allows you to customize the title for each field in the listing. (The default titles are obtained from the Data Dictionary.). The first column of the spreadsheet gives the field name and the second column contains the title. In the title, a caret (^) symbol is used to mark where a new line should be started.
The Page Title menu item allows you to enter a one-line title to be displayed at the top of each page of the listing. To insert the name of the current file into the text, use the phrase “#FILE” in the title if you wish to insert the name of the current file into the text. (This feature is useful because output formats can be saved and applied to different database files.)
The Page Setup menu item displays the standard Page Setup (Windows) dialog box. You can change the margins, font, orientation and printer to be used for the listing.
The Grouping Fields menu item allows you to list your data by groups. Fields in your database may be used for grouping even if they are not selected for display. Ordinarily, coded fields (such as Sex or Status) are used for grouping. If you select a numeric or date field (such as Salary or Date of Termination), because these field types do not have a discrete set of values (as does the coded field type), click the BrkPts (Break Points) button to enter the break point values you want ProVal to use to form data groups. Enter a list of numbers or dates separated by spaces. Examples of specifying break points are provided on the screen. Note that the break point values indicate the inclusive lower bound for each interval. Thus, for example, if Service is a grouping field and you enter the break points
5 10 15 20
then the first group will include records with service less than 5, the second group will include records with service greater than or equal to 5 but less than 10, and so forth.
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The Selection Library button provides access to the Selection Expression library, which allows you to limit the number of records in the listing by selecting only some records from the database. Select the desired expression from those listed in the Selection expression box. The selected expression will appear in the text field.
Style description may be any descriptive phrase, including spaces, under which to save your List Data settings. To retrieve a List Data design template (listing style) you had saved previously, click the Library button, click the “Load from library” option, highlight the name of the desired style (under Select the entry to edit) and Load the desired style. You may also click a different option, to Replace an edited template, Save a new template or Erase the current entry from the library. You can also (under the “Load from library” option) Import a library entry from another ProVal client.
Click the View button to view the results, after which you can Print or save to File by clicking the corresponding button.