[sqr-users] Having trouble with negative line positioning

[Matt Rogish <rogishmn@muohio.edu>]

Hi all,

I have a list of donations with attached user name records that I'm 
grabbing in one query, so the output looks like:
$123,555  Matt  Cash
$12,000,000 Bob  Cash
$12,000 Joe  Credit Card
$14,000 Happy  Credit Card
$15,000 Gilmore Credit Card
etc.
*Note the order by is type (cash, credit card, etc.) and then dollar amount.

What I'd like to do is add the multi-line (it's from a DBMS table) 
description of the type to the output in a third column.  So my sample 
output would look something like:
$123,555  Matt  Cash      Cash is usually collected on Fridays
$12,000,000 Bob  Cash    and is delivered to the bank in an
                                     armored car.  Note that the driver is 
armed with a bazooka,
                                     so attempting a robbery would be 
ill-advised.
$12,000 Joe Credit Card      Credit Card payments are handled instantly
$14,000 Happy Credit Card   via our supplier.
$15,000 Gilmore Credit Card

I was thinking I could do something like this:

let #num_in_type = 0

begin-select
dollar_amount
name
type on-break print=never after=get_type_description

   add 1 to #num_in_type

from foo
...
end-select

procedure get_type_description

    position (-#num_in_type )
    let #num_in_type = 0

end-procedure

There are two things wrong with this.  First off, I can't use negative 
positioning with any sort of a variable.  If I use position (-#num_in_type) 
I get:
(SQR 4501) Use '+' and negate variable for reverse relative placement.
-#num_in_type

Ok, so I changed it to be:
let #num_in_type = #num_in_type * -1
position (#num_in_type)

Which, unsurprisingly, does not work either:
(SQR 4503) Fixed line placement #num_in_type must be > 0.  Use relative 
positioning, (+#line,10,0).

Is there no way to dynamically use position with a negative variable?  I 
can do position (-1) just fine!

Secondly, if the description for 'cash' is more rows than the number of 
cash items, then it bleeds into the description for credit card, so I'd 
need a way to create whitespace in between cash and credit card as shown in 
the example.  I can't seem to make this work.  Any ideas!?


Thanks,

--
Matt Rogish - rogishmn@muohio.edu
Programmer
Advancement Services
Miami University
513.529.1420

Do not meddle in the affairs of SQR,
for it is subtle and quick to anger!  

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