is it possible to use MaximumFuntion within an Entry Funciton in Progress 4gl - progress-4gl

Question

I am new to progress and I am trying to figure out how to get this working. My task is to Get a list of integer values from user as semi colon separated and message the highest and lowest value on that list. Till now I have used an entry function to help me get just the integers entered by the user one after another. like so
repeat I = 1 to totalEntries:
m = entry (I, Userinput, ";").
display m.
end.
After this I would like to find out the maximum value of all the entries. how can I do this since maximum function accepts more than one value for comparison.

Answer 1

There is no built in function to give a maximum or minimum number from given list of numbers. You need to write your own logic as in most of the programming languages. Here is an example:
DEF VAR i AS INT.
DEF VAR nlist AS CHAR INIT "1;2;7;3;6;9".
DEF VAR imin AS INT.
DEF VAR imax AS INT.
imin = INTEGER(ENTRY (1, nlist, ";")).
imax = INTEGER(ENTRY (1, nlist, ";")).
REPEAT i = 2 TO NUM-ENTRIES(nlist, ";"):
IF INTEGER(ENTRY(i, nlist, ";")) > imax THEN
imax = INTEGER(ENTRY(i, nlist, ";")).
IF INTEGER(ENTRY(i, nlist, ";")) < imin THEN
imin = INTEGER(ENTRY(i, nlist, ";")).
END.
MESSAGE imax.
MESSAGE imin.

Answer 2

As Austin sad, there is no built-in function in Progress to give a maximum or minimum number from a list.
In your comment, you've mentioned that MAXIMUM(1,2,3) worked. Yes, it works, but you have to figure that you're passing three parameters to the function, not a list of numbers inside a single CHAR variable.
To solve your problem you can use the solution given by Austin or you can use two functions that receive a CHAR variable with semi colon separated values and return maximum or minimum values.
Here is an example, based on your code.
FUNCTION iMax RETURNS INTEGER
( INPUT pData AS CHAR ):
DEF VAR iOutput AS INT NO-UNDO.
DEF VAR iCount AS INT NO-UNDO.
iOutput = ?.
DO iCount = 1 TO NUM-ENTRIES(pData,';'):
IF iOutput = ? THEN DO:
iOutput = INT(ENTRY(iCount,pData,';')).
NEXT.
END.
iOutput = MAX(iOutput,INT(ENTRY(iCount,pData,';'))).
END.
RETURN iOutput.
END FUNCTION.
FUNCTION iMin RETURNS INTEGER
( INPUT pData AS CHAR ):
DEF VAR iOutput AS INT NO-UNDO.
DEF VAR iCount AS INT NO-UNDO.
iOutput = ?.
DO iCount = 1 TO NUM-ENTRIES(pData,';'):
IF iOutput = ? THEN DO:
iOutput = INT(ENTRY(iCount,pData,';')).
NEXT.
END.
iOutput = MIN(iOutput,INT(ENTRY(iCount,pData,';'))).
END.
RETURN iOutput.
END FUNCTION.
/****************/
Define variable NumberEntry as character view-as fill-in no-undo.
Define variable UsersInput as character no-undo.
Define variable i as integer no-undo.
Define variable totalEntries as integer no-undo.
Define variable m as character no-undo.
Define variable n as character no-undo.
Define button bFind.
Define frame main numberEntry label "Enter numbers separated by semi colon" skip
bFind label "Find Max and Min" with side-labels. /*Trigger for button*/
On choose of bFind in frame main do: /*Retrieve the users input*/
Usersinput = (numberEntry:screen-value). /*to find out how many characters the user has enterd.*/ totalEntries = num-entries(UsersInput,';'). Display totalentries. /*Logic to extract Users input values one by one.*/
Repeat i = 1 to totalEntries: M = entry(i, UsersInput, ";").
Display m.
End. /*Logic to find the maximum element. */ .....
MESSAGE 'MAXIMUM :' iMax(UsersInput) SKIP
'MINIMUM :' iMin(UsersInput)
VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX INFO BUTTONS OK.
END.
VIEW FRAME main.
ENABLE ALL WITH FRAME main.
WAIT-FOR CHOOSE OF bfind.
You can call iMax() or iMin() and get MAX or MIN values from Progress MAXIMUM and MINIMUM function using a CHAR list of INTEGER values separated by semi colons without need to make a full code block to do the comparision and get the information for each situation that presents necessary.
Hope it helps.