How to fill a field with part of data from adjacent ffield

1

I have already split a «LAST,FIRST» into «LAST» and «FIRST». .
Now I am entering new data and do not want to have to duplicate entry of LAST, FIRST.
How do I fill «LAST» and «FIRST» with each respective part of the data in «LAST,FIRST»?

Thanks, CM

2

See Text Funnels in the Help files to parse values from a text striing.

3

I would probably do it the other way around. Put a formula in your «LAST,FIRST» field like this.

«LAST» +", " + «FIRST»

and then make your entries into the LAST and FIRST fields respectively. Alternatively, after making entries into «LAST,FIRST», you could select those records where LAST was empty and then fill with formula in the LAST and FIRST fields respectively. Fill the LAST field with

strip(array(«LAST,FIRST»,1,",")

and fill the FIRST field with

strip(array(«LAST,FIRST»,2,",")

or you could use those last two formulas as the formulas for the LAST and FIRST fields respectively.

4

I think it’s a bit simpler to use this formula for the LAST field.

strip(before(«LAST,FIRST»,","))

and this for the FIRST field

strip(after(«LAST,FIRST»,","))

I would not recommend Text Funnels for this - sure it could be done and those were the best solution in 1990, but Panorama has much better tools for this now.