Formatting conventions for fields in qualifications

This topic describes the formatting conventions for fields used in a Run If qualification or expression.

Single quotation marks

Enclose field names or field IDs in single quotation marks, for example, 'Short Description' or '7'. Single quotation marks are automatically added when you select fields from the Available Fields list in the Expression Editor.

If the field name includes a single quotation mark, enter two single quotation marks in its place. For example, if the field name is Doug's Requests, enter it as 'Doug''s Requests'.

Related topic

Expression-editor-and-content-assist

Double quotation marks

Some values must be enclosed in double quotation marks (") in a qualification. The following table outlines when to use double quotation marks.

Value	Use Quotation Marks?	Notes
Nonnumeric, such as time, character, and diary	Yes	Enclose a date in double quotations:"04/01/04" For example, to search for all requests created after a certain date, use:'Create-date' > "04/01/04"
Nonnumeric that include quotation marks	Yes	In addition to the double quotes contained in the value, include double quotes around the full entry. For example, if you want to search for a string such as:Robert "Bobby" Smith enter:"Robert ""Bobby"" Smith"
Integers (for time fields)	No	Integers without quotes are interpreted as a number of seconds. To specify a number of hours, multiply 60 (= 1 minute) by 60 (= 1 hour). For example, to specify 10 hours, enter:60 * 60 * 10
Keywords	No	Enter keywords with dollar signs ($) as shown in this example:'Submitter' = $USER$ Using no quotation marks is also enforced for using keywords with calculations. Valid qualifications include:*'Create-date' > $TIMESTAMP$ 'Create-date' > ($TIMESTAMP$ - (60 60 * 24)) Use the keyword $NULL$ to find requests that have no value in a field (for example, 'Assigned To' = $NULL$). For qualifications passed to an EXTERNAL()** operator, you can set a character field with a keyword, rather than with the expanded value of the keyword. To do so, add an escape character () to the qualification, like this:'Character Field' = $\USER$ The character field is populated with $USER$ instead of with the user's name. See Operator types for more information about EXTERNAL(). See Keywords for available keywords.

Using currency fields

For currency fields, you must have one of the following enclosed within single quotation marks:

The name or Field ID of the currency field, for example:
'<currencyField>' = $NULL$
The name of the currency field, followed by a period and a specific portion of the currency field's value, such as the date or a functional currency value, for example:
'<currencyField.VALUE>' < 5000
If the qualification for the currency field includes a calculation, you must include the currency type to avoid an error. For example, if you have a field called "Tax Savings" that displays the percentage of tax savings of a field that calculates the difference of two billing fields, determine the percentage by using a qualification like this:
($Billing Totals Difference.VALUE$ * $Current Tax Rate$) / ("100" + $Billing Assessment Total Difference.TYPE$)
If you use field references in the calculation, you do not need to supply the currency type; it is determined at run time. For example:
($Billing Totals Difference.VALUE$ * $Current Tax Rate$) / $Integer field that stores the division number$

Using attachment fields

The value of an attachment field used in a qualification is a character string containing the fully qualified file name of the attachment file.

Using selection field values

Selection field values can be specified as text values (in quotation marks) or numeric values or IDs (not in quotation marks). For example, if you have a Status field with the option buttons labeled Open, Fixed, and Verified, you can enter either "Open" or 0 to specify the value of Open, because Open is the first selection value in the selection field. For example:

'Status'="Open"

'Status'= 0

Field values and filters

For filters, you can specify whether the qualification should reference field values in the transaction only, in the database only, or in both. See Checking transaction versus database values.

Field ID 112 and dynamic group fields

If referencing field ID 112 (for assignee group access) or dynamic group fields, enclose the name of the field in single quotation marks. Enclose the value statement in double quotes. The value statement can contain a group ID, group name, role ID, role name, or user name, and each value must be followed by a semicolon within the quotes. For example, if the name of field 112 is Assignee Group and the group ID of Sales Staff is 50, enter the qualification as follows:

'Assignee Group' = "50;"

For user Mary Manager, use single quotation marks:

'Assignee Group' = "'Mary Manager';"

To enter multiple groups, roles, and user names in your qualification, enter a semicolon at the beginning of the list and include no spaces. For example, the name of field 112 is Assignee Group. To create a qualification that includes the Sales Staff group (ID 50), the Marketing Staff group (ID 51), the Managers role (ID -90), and user Mary Manager, enter the qualification using the following format:

'Assignee Group' = ";50;51;-90;'Mary Manager';"

To use multiple groups for field ID 112 and for dynamic group fields, select Enable Multiple Assign Groups on the Configuration tab of the AR System Administration: Server Information form. See Setting-administrative-options.

Field names containing special characters

If the field name contains the character that it will be delimited with in the expression, you must double that character in the field name within the expression. For example, when the delimiter is single quotation marks:

For field'Name use ' field' 'Name'
For field$Name use ' field$Name'
For 'fieldName use ' ''fieldName '

When the delimiter is dollar signs:

For field$Name use $field$ $Name$
For field'Name use $field'Name$
For $fieldName use $$$fieldName$

In Developer Studio, the auto-complete feature and the field selector dialog box manage this syntax convention for you.

Status history in filter qualifications

Status history references in a filter's Run If qualification must have the following information and format:

The name or ID of the Status History field (followed by a period).
The name or index of the status value that you want to match (followed by a period).
The keyword USER (for the user who is changing the status) or TIME (for the time that the status changed).

For example:

'Status History.Fixed.TIME' < "07/01/99"

This syntax is created automatically when you select the Status History reference from the Run If list.

In a filter qualification, you can use a Status History reference if you are checking values in the database; Status History is not meaningful if you are trying to check the value of the current transaction. (For more information, see Checking-transaction-versus-database-values.) You cannot use Status History references in active link Run If qualifications or you cannot set the Status History value to a field in an active link set fields action.