Custom yes/no column built from long text column

[Philantrop]

I have a custom column "foo" of type "Long text, like comments, not shown in the tag browser" which either contains nothing at all or some text.

I'd like to have a simple "Yes/No" column "bar" that, in the library view, shows if "foo" contains anything.

So I added said "Yes/No" column of type "Column built from other columns" and used this template:

program: test(select(field('#annotations'),'.*'),'Yes ','No')

Unfortunately, this function always returns "No". Even when replacing the '.*' with 'e' (because I had prepared "foo"'s content to contain it), it still returned "No".

I've experimented with just using test() but whatever I tried, it simply either returned "Yes" or "No" for *all* entries, regardless of "foo"'s actual content.

Can someone please lend me a hand here? :)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

I have a custom column "foo" of type "Long text, like comments, not shown in the tag browser" which either contains nothing at all or some text.

I'd like to have a simple "Yes/No" column "bar" that, in the library view, shows if "foo" contains anything.

So I added said "Yes/No" column of type "Column built from other columns" and used this template:

program: test(select(field('#annotations'),'.*'),'Yes ','No')

Unfortunately, this function always returns "No". Even when replacing the '.*' with 'e' (because I had prepared "foo"'s content to contain it), it still returned "No".

I've experimented with just using test() but whatever I tried, it simply either returned "Yes" or "No" for *all* entries, regardless of "foo"'s actual content.

Can someone please lend me a hand here?

Have you tried to flip the logic (Not an empty string. those are 2 ' not a double quote)?

program: test(select(field('#annotations'),''),'No','Yes')

[Philantrop]

Originally Posted by theducks

Have you tried to flip the logic (Not an empty string. those are 2 ' not a double quote)?

program: test(select(field('#annotations'),''),'No','Yes')

Yes, indeed, I've tried that, too (and just did again with 0.9.24 just to make sure), and that only serves to invert the display (before, everything was "No", now everything is "Yes") but doesn't fix the issue.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

Yes, indeed, I've tried that, too (and just did again with 0.9.24 just to make sure), and that only serves to invert the display (before, everything was "No", now everything is "Yes") but doesn't fix the issue.

I am not that good with program mode (OK, I am pretty lousy ). Inverting the logic (not foo:true) has worked in other places, which is why I tossed it into the pot.
chaley will be around pretty soon and probably point to the error of our ways

[chaley]

Why are you using field ('#annotations') instead of field ('#foo')?

[Philantrop]

Originally Posted by chaley

Why are you using field ('#annotations') instead of field ('#foo')?

Because that's the field's actual name which I forgot to replace. foo=annotations.

[chaley]

You almost certainly don't want the function select, which operates on lists of colon separated items. You probably want the function contains, which operates on plain text. The regexp for contains would be something like . (a period), testing if the field contains at least one character.

[Philantrop]

Originally Posted by chaley

You almost certainly don't want the function select, which operates on lists of colon separated items. You probably want the function contains, which operates on plain text. The regexp for contains would be something like . (a period), testing if the field contains at least one character.

Thank you, that was exactly the nudge into the right direction I needed. :-)

So, the solution to my problem as initially described is rather simple:

program: contains(field('#foo'),'.','Yes','No')