Simple calculation field does not work

[John Chamberlain]

I have attached a simplified file with a calculated field that does not work. The calculated field is:

Case (LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1 = "DIED") or LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1 = "EUTHANIZED") and IsEmpty(DATE OF DEATH); "DATE OF DEATH NOT ENTERED")

I want the warning displayed if the disposition is either "DIED" or "EUTHANIZED" and the DATE OF DEATH field is empty.

Thanks in advance.

Untitled.fp7.zip

[Kris M]

Don't have to be that complicated.

If ( DISPOSITION = "DIED" or DISPOSITION = "EUTHANIZED" and IsEmpty ( DATE OF DEATH ); "DATE OF DEATH NOT ENTERED" ; "" )

What was your reasoning behind the choice of leftwords?

 

Edited May 19, 2015 by Kris M

[eos]

Don't have to be that complicated.

​Indeed, but one should still observe operator precedence:

Case (
  ( disposition = "died" or disposition = "euthanized" )
  and
  IsEmpty ( dateOfDeath ) ;
  "Date of death not entered"
)

[comment]

Case (LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1 = "DIED") or LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1 = "EUTHANIZED") and IsEmpty(DATE OF DEATH); "DATE OF DEATH NOT ENTERED")

​Problem #1:

LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1 = "DIED")

That's bad syntax. It should have been:

LeftWords (DISPOSITION;1)= "DIED"

The way you have it, it evaluates 1 = "DIED" first. This returns 0, and that's the number of words the LeftWords() function will return.

 

Problem #2:

AND is evaluated before OR. The way you have it (after fixing problem #1) will return the warning if the field begins with "DIED", regardless of the date being empty or not.

 

Problem #3:

The result type of the calculation should be Text.

 

[comment]

If ( DISPOSITION = "DIED" or DISPOSITION = "EUTHANIZED" and IsEmpty ( DATE OF DEATH ); "DATE OF DEATH NOT ENTERED" ; "" )

​Problem #2: - see above.

BTW, an empty default result is entirely redundant.