Selecting Listbox Values Containing Either of Two Different Pieces of Text

Last week a coworker had a document loaded with data from a database job log table. It was over a million rows of log data that various batch jobs had written into. She wanted to select the rows that represented the start time of jobs and also the rows that represented the end time of jobs. Either one by itself would be easy. We knew that the LOGMESSAGE column contains the text ‘JOB START [‘ for log messages posted by jobs when they start up and the column contains the text ‘FINISH STATUS [‘ for messages posted by jobs when they end. To select either of those types of rows you would just click a listbox for the LOGMESSAGE column and start typing the text and QlikView would automatically select the rows. But, selecting both start message and end messages – that is different, how to do that?

The answer is to use an advanced search expression. For this example, you click on the LOGMESSAGE listbox and then start typing this:  =wildmatch(LOGMESSAGE,' *JOB START [*','*FINISH STATUS [*')

As soon as you type the equal sign, QlikView knows you are entering an advanced search expression. QlikView then tests the WildMatch function for each possible value of LOGMESSAGE and if the function is true then the column value is shown in the listbox and when you click [enter] the values are selected. It worked great for our log data problem- all of the start and end log messages were selected and shown in the chart along with their job start timestamps and job end timestamps.

The asterisks in the WildMatch expression are wild card characters that represent any series of characters. We could have added other wildcard matching strings too if we needed them. For example, if the job end messages had two different text layouts then we could have used the matching text to select both types of end messages. Despite the fact that the WildMatch expression contains the column name, LOGMESSAGE, it could be used with any of the columns or fields in the document and it would select the values that are associated with the LOGMESSAGE start and end messages.

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Update Document Variables Directly From Excel Spreadsheet

A few years ago I published a blog entry that showed how to copy all of the variables and their values from a QlikView document into an Excel spreadsheet (search on QlikView Maven Listing All Variables and Contents). It was very useful for me, I use it all the time especially when I want to search or sort the variables. Here is the companion to that piece - it is an Excel macro that will copy the data from your spreadsheet into the document variables of a QlikView document. I will say that again - it is an Excel VBA macro (not a QlikView macro).

Copy and paste to install the macro into your Excel spreadsheet and build a button to execute it. You will find it convenient to insert it into the same Excel file that you use for the variable listing I mentioned above. The macro will use a browse-for-file feature so you can select the QlikView document file you want to update. Then, the macro will go down the rows of your active worksheet taking variable names from column A and variable contents from column B and updating the document until it hits an empty cell in column A. It will then tell you how many variables it has processed and ask if you want to save the document. It starts from row 4 of your  worksheet to make it compatible with the earlier spreadsheet macro but you can change the row that it starts with - look for the comment in the middle of the macro.

As always, make a backup copy of your files before running a macro like this. Here's the macro code:


Sub Update_QV_Variables()
'------------------------
'This Excel macro will ask you to select a QlikView document file and
'then it will insert/updateput the variable names and contents from
'your current worksheet into the QlikView document.
'Variable name must be in column A and variable contents in column B.
'The process goes down the rows until it hits an empty cell in column A.
'--QlikView Maven, April 2013
Dim oQV, oDoc, oVars, oTempVar, oThisVar, qv_fn, i, rowlmt, start_row, varctr, x

'Get the QlikView document pathname
qv_fn = Application.GetOpenFilename("QlikView Report File (.),*.*", , "Select a QlikView .qvw Report File", False)
If qv_fn = 0 Then
  Exit Sub
  End If

'Open the QlikView document file
On Error Resume Next
Set oQV = CreateObject("QlikTech.QlikView")
If Err.Number > 0 Then
  x = MsgBox("Sorry, I can't find QlikView", vbOKOnly, "Update_QV_Variables")
  Exit Sub
  End If
Set oDoc = oQV.OpenDoc(qv_fn)
If Err.Number > 0 Then
  oQV.Quit
  x = MsgBox("Sorry, I can't find the QlikView document", vbOKOnly, "Update_QV_Variables")
  oQV.Quit
  Exit Sub
  End If
Set oVars = oDoc.GetVariableDescriptions
If Err.Number > 0 Then
  oQV.Quit
  x = MsgBox("Sorry, I can't find the QlikView document", vbOKOnly, "Update_QV_Variables")
  Exit Sub
  End If
On Error GoTo 0

start_row = 4 'this is the first spreadsheet row with variable data - change as needed
rowlmt = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count
varctr = 0

'Loop through the rows
For i = start_row To rowlmt
  varname = ActiveSheet.Cells(i, 1).Value
  If Len(Trim(varname)) = 0 Then
    Exit For
    End If
  varctr = varctr + 1
  varcontent = ActiveSheet.Cells(i, 2).Value
  Set oThisVar = oDoc.Variables(varname)
    If oThisVar Is Nothing Then
    'must need to create variable
    oDoc.CreateVariable varname
    Set oThisVar = oDoc.Variables(varname)
    End If
  oThisVar.SetContent varcontent, True
  Next

'Finish up
x = MsgBox(varctr & " variables inserted into " & qv_fn & ". OK to Save?", vbOKCancel, "Update_QV_Variables")
If x <> 2 Then
    oDoc.Save
    End If
oDoc.CloseDoc
oQV.Quit
End Sub

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