Chris, For a listbox the equivalent of 'self' is the Current Item Datasource. Let's say that is Form.LB.currentItem in keeping with your example. (It could be something else just as well.) This is the object that corresponds to the listbox row generally speaking. So you could have a method that validates and formats the whole object that you pass that object to.
If it's a big object and this would take noticeable time or you need to do something more elaborate like lookups you can know still use the row and column (LISTBOX GET CELL POSITION) to work out what's changed. The object script has access to This. So you could use This.FirstName:=Uppercase(This.FirstName) in the column script. When using ORDA on a form keep in mind changing the data is what we want to do. The display will update itself if you are using Expressions. Let's say I have an Input I want to capitalize instead of a listbox column. Let's say Form.myInput is the expression and the input object is named InputObject. When the user changes the data I have options: 1) Self->:= Uppercase(Self->) 2) Object get pointer(Object named;"InputObject")->:=Uppercase(Object get pointer(Object named;"InputObject")->) 3) Form.myInput:=Uppercase(Form.myInput) #1 is the old-school approach. Simple but opaque (what exactly is Self pointing at?) #2 is the newer-school approach taking advantage of dynamic variables. Better sense of what is being operated on. #3 simply updates the property value directly. Completely transparent about what we are acting on. #1 and #2 are manipulating the input object which then updates Form.myInput whereas #3 simply updates Form.myInput directly and then the form input updates itself to reflect that. Hope this helps. On Mon, Feb 3, 2020 at 7:35 PM Chris Belanger via 4D_Tech < [email protected]> wrote: > What a weird ’subject’ for this question. Sorry. Seems quite confusing. > > ———— > > Say that the “variable or expression” for a on-screen object is > Form.LB.Browser.en_edit.FirstName > This is entirely reasonable, as 4D’s ORDA has taught us to use such > ‘expressions’ for the fields > > BUT in the script for this, there is no way to use Self (as there would be > if it was a 4D variable) because it is an ATTRIBUTE of an object. > > This is stupid. > It makes it impossible to write a script as simple as: > > Self->:= Uppercase(Self->) > > Because Self returns a nil pointer. > > So how on earth do we retrieve and set the value under these > circumstances? [GENERICALLY; I do not want to use the object’s “expression” > in the script] > > There is no such 4D method as OBJECT Get Value( ) OBJECT SET VALUE( ) > If there were, we could write: > > OBJECT SET VALUE(*; OBJECT Get Name; Uppercase( OBJECT Get Value(Object > Get Name) ) ) // really cumbersome, but is hypothetical because there is > no ‘OBJECT GET / SET VALUE’ command. > > > ********************************************************************** > 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) > Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html > Options: https://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech > Unsub: mailto:[email protected] > ********************************************************************** -- Kirk Brooks San Francisco, CA ======================= What can be said, can be said clearly, and what you can’t say, you should shut up about *Wittgenstein and the Computer * ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: https://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] **********************************************************************
