CHARLIST

The CHARLIST function transforms an expression into a multiline text value with a separate line for each value of the original expression.

Return Value

NTEXT when the expression is NTEXT; otherwise, TEXT.

Syntax

CHARLIST(expression [dimensions])

Parameters

expression: The expression to be transformed into a multiline text value. When the expression has a data type other than TEXT or NTEXT, CHARLIST automatically converts the expression to TEXT.
dimensions: The dimensions of the return value. When you do not specify a dimension, CHARLIST returns a single value. When you provide one or more dimensions for the return value, CHARLIST returns a multiline text value for each value in the current status list of the specified dimension. Each dimension must be an actual dimension of the expression; it cannot be a related or base dimension.

Examples

Example 7-41 Deleting Workspace Objects

You can use CHARLIST with the NAME dimension to create lists of workspace objects. Suppose you want to delete all objects of a certain type in your workspace, for example, all worksheets. You can use CHARLIST and an ampersand (&) to do this.

LIMIT NAME TO OBJ(TYPE) EQ 'WORKSHEET'
DELETE &CHARLIST(NAME)

Example 7-42 Creating a List of Top Sales People

Assume you have stored the names of the sales people who sold the most for each product in product.memo, a text variable with the dimensions of product and . You then want to create a list of top sales people broken out by product. To do this, you can created a variable dimensioned by product and then use CHARLIST with the product to create a separate list of all of the top sales people for each product.

DEFINE topsales VARIABLE TEXT <product>
topsales = CHARLIST(product.memo product)