User's Manual

DPC/TRACK
Users Manual
3-10
Search Operators & Field Types
This section provides information on data comparison operators (used in Quick
Searches) and how they relate to field types. The first subsection relates to
nonarrayed fields; the second subsection relates to arrayed fields. Finally, a list of
characters and their corresponding relative “orders” is presented. (Further
information on the field types may be found in Chapter 7, “Changing Data.”)
Scalar Fields
Nonarrayed (scalar) fields contain a single value (in contrast to arrayed fields,
which contain multiple values). The different nonarrayed field types and the rules
that govern operators within those fields are presented below.
Text
For all operators except Approx, search criteria and field data are compared
from left to right, one character at a time, with numbers being smaller than
alphabetical characters (see Table 3-1). An uppercase letter is equal in value
to the same letter in lowercase. Blank data is less than an ! symbol, which is
less than a “symbol, which is less than any other Text value, per Table 3-1.
The longer of the search criteria and field data strings is considered to be
“bigger” if all compared characters are otherwise equal.
For Approx, search criteria and field data are compared by the rule “does
the field data contain the specified search criteria?” (i.e., if the search criteria
is “emergency”, it will find all records where the text contains the word
“emergency”). This rule is ignored if an *, ? or | symbol is present, in which
case the rules for wildcard searching apply, unless these symbols are
preceded with a \.
Number
For all operators except Approx, search criteria and field data are compared
as numerical data. Display format characters are ignored (such as $, %, etc.).
Blank data is less than 0, which is less than 30, which is less than 250, etc.
For Approx, search criteria and field data are compared by the rule “is the
field data within +
10% of the search criteria?”