Entire Load Statement in a Variable

QlikView document variables contain text. The software allows us to use variables in different situations and, for such a simple idea, they add considerable flexibility to help you satisfy requirements.
 
Most people use variables for field names, label text, expressions, and other relatively short bits of text. You can store longer text in a variable that may be useful. For example, I recently stored this entire bit of loadscript code in a variable named var_UOM_table:

/* Unit of Measure - loadscript code */
if NoOfRows('TBL_UOM_SELECT')>0 then
    Drop table TBL_UOM_SELECT;
end if
TBL_UOM_SELECT:
Add Load * inline
[Unit of Measure: uom_conv
Box: 1
Case: 0.1
Std Drum: (1/DRUMFCTR)
] (delimiter is ':');


In the loadscript I simply wrote the single line
$(var_UOM_table)

and that expanded to the entire segment of loadscript code when the document was reloaded.

This was useful to me for a document that loaded variable definitions from a database. Remember that variables can contain text expressions and accept arguments. Keep variables like this in mind for loadscript situations that require standard bits of text that may need to be repeated or shared between documents.

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Always One Selected Value Really

I developed a document a few months ago that provided the user the ability to select which currency (Dollars, Euros, Rupees, etc) to use for presenting financial data. The expressions in the document did not work correctly unless one and only one currency was selected. Originally, I clicked on the Always One Selected Value option available in Listbox and Multibox properties. But there was a problem with the option sometimes turning itself off and the first indication of a problem is when users noticed glaringly incorrect financial quantities!

The problem with the Always One Selected Value option is that it can turn itself off when someone does a Reduce Data operation on the document. My team frequently does that to reduce document file size in order to email a document or store it in the version control system.

Here's an alternative way to accomplish the same thing. In my document, I wanted a single value from the CURRENCY field always selected. So, I set up an action to be executed based on the OnAnySelect or OnOpen events. Go to Settings-Document Properties and click on the Triggers tab. In the Document Event Triggers window click on OnAnySelect. In the Field Event Triggers window, scroll down to CURRENCY (use your field name, of course), click on it and then click the OnSelect Edit Action(s) button.

When the Actions dialog box opens, click the Add button, add a Select In Field action, type CURRENCY (use your field name) into the Field box, and then type this into Search String:

=if(GetSelectedCount(CURRENCY)=1,CURRENCY,'Euro')

That expression makes sure only one value is selected and, if it isn't, it automatically chooses a default value - in this case it chooses Euro as a default currency value. You could also use a variable or an expression for the default value.


Click OK and then do the same thing for the OnOpen event. If needed for your situation you may also want to do the same thing for the OnPostReload event. Now, the document will always have one selected value for the field and if anyone tries to deselect it or select multiple values the trigger will switch to the default selection. For my document, I also checked off the Always One Selected Value checkbox in the Listbox Presentation tab.

[Author's Note 1Mar2013
Based on a reader comment, here's a slightly different expression that will return the selection to the previous valid selection instead of a default value:

=if(GetSelectedCount(CURRENCY)=1,UOM_SELECTION,if(isnull(Only({$1}CURRENCY)),'Euro',Only({$1}CURRENCY)))

It uses set analysis syntax to get the previous selection and only uses the default if the previous selection is null.