Using expressions for a value in Paramaters - sql-server

I have a report that returns various products depending on which product group you select. Most of these products all have similar product codes that allow me to use the LIKE operator to get the required results. However, for one particular product group, I have the following problem:
VSAMPLES
VSAMPLES2016
VSAMPLES2016DD
VSAMPLESADD
VSAMPLESET
VSAMPLESLARGE
VSAMPLESLARGEADD
VSAMPLESNEW
I only need the top two products to be listed. But using 'VSAMPLES% as a parameter value will return all of these products.
Can i write an expression for the parameter value that will use 'VSAMPLES% and 'VSAMPLES2016% to only return these two products?
EDIT
The query is:
SELECT STRC_CODE, STRC_DESC FROM DeFactoUser.F_ST_Products
WHERE STRC_CODE LIKE #ProductCode
I am using LIKE so I don't have to specify dozens of products for each group.
For one Parameter value I am using 'PA.A% This works perfectly because every product starting with PA.A is needed. In the case of VSAMPLES this isn't the case.
Parameter Values are as follows:
So, can I not add a value to the Aspire tab that will return only those two products?

OK, What i was asking might not have been possible. i fixed the issue by altering my query.
SELECT STRC_CODE, STRC_STATUS, STRC_DESC FROM DeFactoUser.F_ST_Products
WHERE STRC_CODE LIKE #ProductCode AND STRC_CODE NOT IN ('VSAMPLES2016DD',
'VSAMPLESADD', 'VSAMPLESET', 'VSAMPLESLARGE', 'VSAMPLESLARGEADD',
'VSAMPLESNEW')
This results in only the two products I needed being returned when i use VSAMPLES% as a value.
Much simpler then I thought.
Thanks for the input into the question I asked.

Related

MS Access, use query name as field default value

My department uses a software tool that can use a custom component library sourced from Tables or Queries in an MS Access database.
Table: Components
ID: AutoNumber
Type: String
Mfg: String
P/N: String
...
Query: Resistors
SELECT Components.*
FROM Components
WHERE Components.Type = "Resistors"
Query: Capacitors
SELECT Components.*
FROM Components
WHERE Components.Type = "Capacitors"
These queries work fine for SELECT. But when users add a row to the query, how can I ensure the correct value is saved to the Type field?
Edit #2:
Nope, can't be done. Sorry.
Edit #1:
As was pointed out, I may have misunderstood the question. It's not a wonky question after all, but perhaps an easy one?
If you're asking how to add records to your table while making sure that, for example, "the record shows up in a Resistors query if it's a Resistor", then it's a regular append query, that specifies Resisitors as your Type.
For example:
INSERT INTO Components ( ID, Type, Mfg )
SELECT 123, 'Resistors', 'Company XYZ'
If you've already tried that and are having problems, it could be because you are using a Reserved Word as a field name which, although it may work sometimes, can cause problems in unexpected ways.
Type is a word that Access, SQL and VBA all use for a specific purpose. It's the same idea as if you used SELECT and FROM as field or table names. (SELECT SELECT FROM FROM).
Here is a list of reserved words that should generally be avoided. (I realize it's labelled Access 2007 but the list is very similar, and it's surprisingly difficult to find an recent 'official' list for Excel VBA.)
Original Answer:
That's kind a a wonky way to do things. The point of databases is to organize in such a way as to prevent duplication of not only data, but queries and codes as well
I made up the programming rule for my own use "If you're doing anything more than once, you're doing it wrong." (That's not true in all cases but a general rule of thumb nonetheless.)
Are the only options "Resistors" and "Capacitors"? (...I hope you're not tracking the inventory of an electronics supply store...) If there are may options, that's even more reason to find an alternative method.
To answer your question, in the Query Design window, it is not possible to return the name of the open query.
Some alternative options:
As #Erik suggested, constrain to a control on a form. Perhaps have a drop-down or option buttons which the user can select the relevant type. Then your query would look like:
SELECT * FROM Components WHERE Type = 'Forms![YourFormName]![NameOfYourControl]'
In VBA, have the query refer to the value of a variable, foe example:
Dim TypeToDel as String
TypeToDel = "Resistor"
DoCmd.RunSQL "SELECT * FROM Components WHERE Type = '" & typeToDel'"
Not recommended, but you could have the user manually enter the criteria. If your query is like this:
SELECT * FROM Components WHERE Type = '[Enter the component type]'
...then each time the query is run, it will prompt:
Similarly, you could have the query prompt for an option, perhaps a single-digit or a code, and have the query choose the the appropriate criteria:
...and have an IF statement in the query criteria.
SELECT *
FROM Components
WHERE Type = IIf([Enter 1 for Resistors, 2 for Capacitors, 3 for sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads]=1,'Resistors',IIf([Enter 1 for Resistors, 2 for Capacitors, 3 for sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads]=2,'Capacitors','LaserSharks'));
Note that if you're going to have more than 2 options, you'll need to have the parameter box more than once, and they must be spelled identically.
Lastly, if you're still going to take the route of a separate query for each component type, as long as you're making separate queries anyway, why not just put a static value in each one (just like your example):
SELECT * FROM Components WHERE Type = 'Resistor'
There's another wonky answer here but that's just creating even more duplicate information (and more future mistakes).
Side note: Type is a reserved word in Access & VBA; you might be best to choose another. (I usually prefix with a related letter like cType.)
More Information:
Use parameters in queries, forms, and reports
Use parameters to ask for input when running a query
Microsoft Access Tips & Tricks: Parameter Queries
 • Frickin' Lasers

Show UniData SELECT results that are not record keys

I'm looking over some UniData fields for distinct values but I'm hoping to find a simpler way of doing it. The values aren't keys to anything so right now I'm selecting the records I'm interested in and selecting the data I need with SAVING UNIQUE. The problem is, in order to see what I have all I know to do is save it out to a savedlist and then read through the savedlist file I created.
Is there a way to see the contents of a select without running it against a file?
If you are just wanted to visually look over the data, use LIST instead of SELECT.
The general syntax of the command is something like:
LIST filename WITH [criteria] [sort] [attributes | ALL]
So let's say you have a table called questions and want to look over all the author for questions that used the tag unidata. Your query might look something like:
LIST questions WITH tag = "unidata" BY author author
Note: The second author isn't a mistake, it's the start of the list of attributes you want displayed - in this case just author, but you might want the record id as well, so you could do #ID author instead. Or just do ALL to display everything in each record.
I did BY author here as it will make spotting uniques easier, but you can also use other query features like BREAK.ON to help here as well.
I don't know why I didn't think of it at the time but I basically needed something like SQL's DISTINCT statement since I just needed to view the unique values. Replicating DISTINCT in UniData is explained here, https://forum.precisonline.com/index.php?topic=318.0.
The trick is to sort on the values using BY, get a single unique value of each using BREAK-ON, and then suppress everything except those unique values using DET-SUP.
LIST BUILDINGS BY CITY BREAK-ON CITY DET-SUP
CITY.............
Albuquerque
Arlington
Ashland
Clinton
Franklin
Greenville
Madison
Milton
Springfield
Washington

Relational database structure design advice

This is a textual description of data for which I need to create a database design (using SQLite) for an application.
The application needs to keep a record of operations. Each operation has a Name and its list of parameters. Each parameter has its Name and a Value. However, the values of the parameters will change over the lifetime of the app (in fact the user will be able to changes them using GUI) and we want to keep a history of the values which a certain parameter has had. Furthermore, each operation can have multiple parameter sets. A parameter set is like an envelope which encompasses a set of parameter values (which all belong to the same operation) and gives this envelope a unique Number and a non-unique Description.
This is what I have so-far:
[Database model image][1]
The database model should allow me to perform these actions on the database data:
Show a list of operations - I know how to do this.
Show a list of parameters for a given operation - I know how to do this.
For a given operation, show all its parameters as columns and show the values of the parameters as rows - each row represents a different parameter value from the history of values. I'm stuck at this one.
For a given operation, show a list of all parameter sets which belong to that operation. I'm stuck at this one too.
For a given operation and for a given parameter set, get the latest values of its parameters. Stuck at this.
I'm not sure if I should re-work my database model or if I should look for proper SQL statements to accomplish the tasks above with the model that I have. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
EDIT 1
I have re-worked my database model according to a helpful advice from #Marek Herman. Thanks to that I am able to accomplish tasks 1) 2) 4).
Now I'm trying to accomplish 5) which should not be that difficult with the current database model. I have this SQL statement:
SELECT Parameter.ParameterIdentifier, ParameterValue.ParameterValue,
ParameterValueVersion.VersionNumber, ParameterValueVersion.ChangedOn
FROM ParameterValueVersion INNER JOIN
(((Operation INNER JOIN Parameter ON Operation.OperationPLC_ID = Parameter.OperationPLC_ID)
INNER JOIN ParameterSet ON Operation.OperationPLC_ID = ParameterSet.OperationPLC_ID)
INNER JOIN ParameterValue ON (ParameterSet.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterSetID) AND
(Parameter.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterID)) ON ParameterValueVersion.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterValueVersionID
WHERE (Operation.OperationPLC_ID=[opID] AND
ParameterSet.ParameterSetNumber=[parSetNum]);
where [opID] and [parSetNum] are the input parameters. This SQL statement actually only joins all these tables together on their PK->FK relationship: Operation, Parameter, ParameterSet, ParameterValue, ParameterValueVersion and filters the rows by specified OperationPLC_ID and ParameterSetNumber.
Here is an example of an output of this SQL statement. Each row shows a name of a parameter, its value, a version number of the value and date of change of that value. Some parameters only have one value (only one version -e.g., "OFFSET"). Some parameters have two values. For example "PREFILLING" has a value of "3" which was input on Oct 20, 2016 (and has a version number 1) and it also has a value of "3.5" which was input on Oct 21, 2016 and has a version number of 2. So I'd like to show only the latest versions of the values of the parameters. Any advice how to modify the SQL statement is much appreciated. Thank you.
EDIT 2
I guess I figured out how to perform 5). I had to study a bit how GROUP BY works. This did the trick:
SELECT Parameter.ParameterIdentifier, last(ParameterValue.ParameterValue) AS ParameterValue, last(ParameterValueVersion.ChangedOn) AS ChangedOn, max(ParameterValueVersion.VersionNumber) AS VersionNumber
FROM ParameterValueVersion INNER JOIN
(((Operation INNER JOIN Parameter ON Operation.OperationPLC_ID = Parameter.OperationPLC_ID)
INNER JOIN ParameterSet ON Operation.OperationPLC_ID = ParameterSet.OperationPLC_ID)
INNER JOIN ParameterValue ON (ParameterSet.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterSetID) AND
(Parameter.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterID)) ON ParameterValueVersion.ID = ParameterValue.ParameterValueVersionID
WHERE (((Operation.OperationPLC_ID)=[opID]) AND ((ParameterSet.ParameterSetNumber)=[parSetNum]))
GROUP BY Parameter.ParameterIdentifier
ORDER BY Parameter.ParameterIdentifier
Now I still need to figure out how to perform task no. 3. I'm gonna study the suggested COALESCE function. Thank you.
0) I would connect ParameterSet to Operation and Parameter and not to ParameterValue.
1) okay!
2) okay!
3) I think you can use the COALESCE() function to display the columns and then it should be possible to show all parameters with matching OperationID
4) you can do that if you do point #0
5) same as above I think

MDX MEMBER causing NON EMPTY to not filter

I'm using an MDX query to pull information to support a set of reports. A high degree of detail is required for the reports so they take some time to generate. To speed up the access time we pull the data we need and store it in a flat Oracle table and then connect to the table in Excel. This makes the reports refresh in seconds instead of minutes.
Previously the MDX was generated and run by department for 100 departments and then for a number of other filters. All this was done in VB.Net. The requirements for filters have grown to the point where this method is not sustainable (and probably isn't the best approach regardless).
I've built the entire dataset into one MDX query that works perfectly. One of my sets that I cross join includes members from three different levels of hierarchy, it looks like this:
(
Descendants([Merch].[Merch CHQ].[All], 2),
Descendants([Merch].[Merch CHQ].[All], 3),
[Merch].[Merch CHQ].[Department].&[1].Children
)
The problem for me is in our hierarchy (which I can't change), each group (first item) and each department (second item) have the same structure to their naming, ie 15-DeptName and it's confusing to work with.
To address it I added a member:
MEMBER
[Measures].[Merch Level] AS
(
[Merch].[Merch CHQ].CurrentMember.Level.Name
)
Which returns what type the member is and it works perfectly.
The problem is that it updates for every member so none of the rows get filtered by NON BLANK, instead of 65k rows I have 130k rows which will hurt my access performance.
Can my query be altered to still filter out the non blanks short of using IIF to check each measurement for null?
You can specify Null for your member based on your main measure like:
MEMBER
[Measures].[Merch Level] AS
IIf(IsEmpty([Measures].[Normal Measure]),null,[Merch].[Merch CHQ].CurrentMember.Level.Name)
That way it will only generate when there is data. You can go further and add additional dimensions to the empty check if you need to get more precise.

Mongoid Syntax Questions

1) Finding by instance object
Assuming I have the instance object called #topic. I want to retrieve the answers for this given topic. I was thinking I should be able to pass in :topics=>#topic, but i had to do the very ugly query below.
#answers = Answers.where(:topic_ids => {"$in" => [#topic.id]})
2) Getting the string representation of the id. I have a custom function (shown below). But shouldn't this be a very common requirement?
def sid
return id.to_s
end
If your associations are set up correctly, you should be able to do:
#topic.answers
It sounds like the above is what you are looking for. Make sure you have set up your associations correctly. Mongoid is very forgiving when defining associations, so it can seem that they are set up right when there is in fact a problem like mismatched names in references_many and referenced_in.
If there's a good reason why the above doesn't work and you have to use a query, you can use this simple query:
#answers = Answer.where(:topic_ids => #topic.id)
This will match any Answer record whose topic_ids include the supplied ID. The syntax is the same for array fields as for single-value fields like Answer.where(:title => 'Foo'). MongoDB will interpret the query differently depending on whether the field is an array (check if supplied value is in the array) or a single value (check if the supplied value is a match).
Here's a little more info on how MongoDB handles array queries:
http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Advanced+Queries#AdvancedQueries-ValueinanArray

Resources