Btree.Extract Syntax (OI 2.6)

The Btree.Extract Subroutine includes two operators for use in search_criteria constructions.

The first of these is the "#" used to exclude certain values, e.g.

	search_string=?COMPANY?:@VM:"#TRUST INSURANCE": @FM

The second is the "~" or "tilde" to bracket search parameters, e.g.

	search_string=ZIP":@VM:"98100~98111":@FM

My Question:

Is there an operator for "STARTING WITH" which can be used in Btree.Extract?  

OpenList offers the ]", but it does not work for us in the Btree.Extract when used in the same construction as the "#" noted above.	

Jim Roberts

Jim,

I have used ] successfully with Btree.Extract but never ever tried # - with or without ].

I have also used ] successfully, but I don't think it's documented. But assuming it wasn't just a fluke and you can get ] and < to work perhaps I can suggest a workaround:

I assume what you want to search for is everything that not starts with a certain string, e.g everything that not starts with "FISH". That is everything that is less than "FISH" or everything greater than "FISHZZZZ" (or something).

Alternatively you could use something else than Btree.Extract, e.g Btree.read (see TB#101), if the index is small enough (less than 64K), which I think perhaps it is since you want to do a search that would normally return a very large part of the index.

- Oystein -

PS. I apologize for possible errors in the above. My normal development computer nearly died on me today, so I haven't got my system and notes on the air.

View this thread on the forum...