TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

QUICK FILTER

Use the right click “Quick Filter” option and edit for actual value you want to test

This gives you the appropriate filter format til you learn the requirements for filters in ACL

Use drag to create MATCH function with QF

GAPS ON DATES

To run GAPS on dates ALWAYS send the results to an ACL table

PRINTING TABLE LAYOUTS

Print Project Contents Display command

TIPS FOR INTERMEDIATE USERS

SUMMARIZE ON NUMERIC VALUES

To use the Summarize command on numeric values use the “EXPR” option in “Summarize On”

If you use the “save as” option in the expression builder, you can reference the character value you create

HARMONIZING FIELDS FOR JOIN/RELATION

When you have character fields of various lengths, you can test the longer one using the LENGTH & ALLTRIM functions to determine if you can change the length of the current field or need to create a computed field

If you need to pad with blanks, you may use the SUBSTR function, specifying the length you need, e. g., if the Name field is 30 and you need it to be 50, you can use SUBSTR(Name, 1, 50)

Lengths do not have to match when you use date or numeric fields as keys!

TIPS FOR ADVANCED USERS

SCRIPTS FOR MULTIPLE SYSTEMS

Identify the fields you will need for the analysis process & create a file layout

Create a “dataprep” script to move the data from the appropriate system to the file layout you have created

The EXTRACT command can be a multi-lined command in a script which can help ensure that you put data (or blanks) in all fields

Use the AS option in the EXTRACT command to create the required field names

USING DATA FROM MULTIPLE FILES IN SCRIPT

You can create a file of exceptions or data that you want to use to do analysis using a separate file

Use the DO…WHILE Option and LOCATE RECORD to step through the exception file

Move the data from the exception file to variables

Use the variables in the analysis script

CONTINUOUS MONITORING RESULTS

Create exception files during your analysis OPEN the exception file and run the COUNT

command Use the IF command, e.g. IF COUNT1 > 0 and

EXPORT results to an excel spreadsheet Use the IF command again and NOTIFY the

appropriate persons using the ATTACHMENT option to include the spreadsheet you created

The persons who receive the emails will know that they are only notified if there are exceptions

SET COMMAND OPTIONS FOR SCRIPTS

SET SESSION SET FOLDER SET LOG SET DATE

PROBLEM WITH THE “APPEND” OPTION

When you are wanting to append data & you wait for the “APPEND” option on the “file already exists” dialog and it doesn’t appear – determine if the file you are writing to has spaces in the name, if it does you will NOT get this option and you have to use the checkbox on the “MORE” tab to do the append