SQL — GLOBAL() Function

Syntax

GLOBAL (string)

Description

The GLOBAL() function takes a string argument and returns a string. The GLOBAL() function will translate the contents of the string and replace global values that are defined in the config.tpm file. For example, suppose the config.tpm file looked like:

DATA=c:/mydata/
DICTIONARY=c:/mydd/
BITMAPS=c:/mybitmaps/

This is a data file that contains certain information on employees in the EMPLOYEE fields:

NAME	C:(20)
HIRE_DATE	I(4)
PICTURE	C:(60)

The contents of the first record are:

NAME	Bob Worker
HIRE_DATE	2450420
PICTURE	(BITMAPS)BobWorker.bmp

The following query can be used to translate the BITMAPS into global operations. For example:

Select NAME, HIRE_DATE, GLOBAL(picture) from employees

This would result in:

Bob Worker 12/02/96 c:/mybitmaps/BobWorker.bmp