Returns a character string (CHARACTER or LONGCHAR) entry from a list based on an integer position. The data type of the returned value matches the data type of the list element.

Syntax

ENTRY ( element , list[ , delimiter ] )
element
An integer value that corresponds to the position of a character string in a list of values. If the value of element does not correspond to an entry in the list, the AVM raises the ERROR condition. If the value of element is the Unknown value (?), ENTRY returns the Unknown value (?). If element is less than or equal to 0, or is larger than the number of elements in list, ENTRY returns an error.
list
A list of character strings separated with a delimiter. The list can be a variable of type CHARACTER or LONGCHAR. If the value of list is the Unknown value (?), ENTRY returns the Unknown value (?).
delimiter
A single CHARACTER delimiter you define for the list. The default is a comma. This allows the ENTRY function to operate on non-comma-separated lists. If you use an alphabetic character, this delimiter is case sensitive.

Examples

This procedure returns the day of the week that corresponds to a date the user enters. The WEEKDAY function evaluates the date and returns, as an integer, the day of the week for that date. The ENTRY function uses that integer to indicate a position in a list of the days of the week.

r-entry.p 

DEFINE VARIABLE datein AS DATE      NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE daynum AS INTEGER   NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE daynam AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO INITIAL "Sunday,
  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday".

SET datein LABEL "Enter a date (mm/dd/yy)".
daynum = WEEKDAY(datein).
DISPLAY ENTRY(daynum,daynam) FORMAT "x(9)" LABEL "is a" WITH SIDE-LABELS.

This is an example of a list separated by dashes instead of commas (the result is "helvetica"):

r-entry2.p 

DEFINE VARIABLE typeface AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.

typeface = "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-210-*-*-*-*-iso*-*".
DISPLAY ENTRY(3, typeface, "-") FORMAT "x(16)".

The next procedure looks up UNIX login IDs in a small password array and returns the name of the user:

r-entry3.p 

DEFINE VARIABLE login-name AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO FORMAT "x(10)".
DEFINE VARIABLE real-name  AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO FORMAT "x(20)".
DEFINE VARIABLE loop       AS INTEGER   NO-UNDO.
/* username:password:uid:gid:gcos-field:home-dir:login-shell */
DEFINE VARIABLE passwd     AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO EXTENT 5 INITIAL
 ["kulig::201:120:Clyde Kulig:/users/kulig",
  "gegetskas::202:120:Neal Gegetskas:/users/geget:",
  "bertrand::203:120:Rich Bertrand:/users/bertr:",
  "lepage::204:120:Gary Lepage:/users/lepag:",
  "wnek::205:120:Jordyn Wnek:/users/wnekj:"].

REPEAT:
  SET login-name.
  real-name = ?.
  DO loop = 1 TO 5:
    IF ENTRY(1,passwd[loop],":") = login-name THEN LEAVE. 
  END. 
  IF loop > 5 THEN
    MESSAGE "Sorry, but" login-name "is not in my password file.".
  ELSE
    real-name = ENTRY(5,passwd[loop],":"). 
  DISPLAY real-name.
END.

Notes

The ENTRY function is double-byte enabled. It can return an entry that contains double-byte characters from a specified list and the CHARACTER delimiter can be a double-byte character.

See also

ENTRY statement, LOOKUP function, NUM-ENTRIES function