Your answer leads me to believe that you haven't really investigated the possibilities of using the database facilities for solving your problem, since you aren't even aware that OOo provides HSQLDB as its default, not MySQL. If you really need to use a database to manage your data, you might investigate more thoroughly how you might solve your problem using SQL.
John On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Jonathan Kaye <[email protected]> wrote: > jomali wrote: > > > On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 4:49 AM, Jonathan Kaye <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > >> This is a simple question but hours of searching various documents > hasn't > >> turned up an answer yet. In a spreadsheet I can assign a function whose > >> argument is a cell to perform an operation that is displayed in the cell > >> containing the function call. Thus, if cell B1 has the formula > =upper(A1) > >> and A1 has a string "Hello world", then B1 will display "HELLO WORLD". I > >> can > >> also use a macro in a similar fashion to map one string of characters > >> onto another. > >> > >> My question is: how do I do this in a database? I would like to define a > >> field in a query whose value is calculated by applying my macro to the > >> value > >> of another field. I have a field called "ENTRY" in my database and I > >> would like to create another field whose value is FIXSORT(ENTRY) where > >> FIXSORT is a macro that I've written which maps one string onto another > >> one. I assume this is done using a query but I've been unable to figure > >> out how to create the calculated field. > >> > >> Thanks for any help. > >> Jonathan > >> -- > >> Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/ > >> Please do not send me copies of list mail. I read the lists. Thanks! > >> > >> I doubt that you can do it with an OOo macro (others may know more). > > However, you can probably do what you want with SQL, depending on the > DBMS > > you are using and the actual substitution you would like to make. In your > > example, you can formulate an SQL query using the UPPER function to > > display Hello World as HELLO WORLD. For a more complex query, you might > > want to consider using the stored procedure or function capabilities of > > you DBMS. > > > > John > Thanks John. My macros are extremely specific to a given task and could > only > be created via a macro programming language (such a the variety of basic > used in openoffice). I use the dbms supplied by openoffice (mysql?). I have > not been able to find any mention of how to use macros created in > openoffice > for calculated fields. I guess it can't be done. > Thanks again. > Jonathan > > -- > Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/ > Please do not send me copies of list mail. I read the lists. Thanks! > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
