To include a field in the Search criteria, drag the desired field tile above the text header Drag fields above this line. Once dragging is complete, the field name tile will display its four component parts:

• Field name;
• pop-up list of available Comparison Operators (content varies, depending upon data type of the field);
• run-time button;
• Comparison Value field.

• Field name
  this is the name of  the field which was dragged above Drag fields above this line for inclusion in the selection criteria.

• Comparison Operators
  Search key is unique to Scribe. For a more detailed treatment of the generic operators, refer to your database SQL manual dealing with the WHERE clause.

The Search Key
replaces the Comparison Operator / Comparison Value pair with a single text string that encapsulates both the Operator and the Value. This string must be either hard-coded in the Comparison Value field, or formatted in the Procedure before commencing the DB retrieval and passed to the Comparison Value field in a variable. If this variable is also used as a Parameter, then at run-time this Parameter will be represented as a pair of pop-up lists with valid Comparison Operators and editable text field for entering the Comparison value.

• Run-time button and Comparison Value field
  When first displayed,  the Run-time button is Off (white), the Comparison Value field is editable and can be set to hardcoded value. If the Run-time button is On (gray), the Comparison Value filed becomes non-editable and displays the message Drag variable / field here i.e. the system expects to receive the required search data at run-time (soft-coding) from one of the variable or data fields.

• Soft-coding:
  To indicate which field or variable will supply the data, select the appropriate item from the Local or Database resources of the Palette and drag the item into the Comparison Value field. Keep in mind that if the desired data originates from a field in a database table, then that data must have been retrieved as part of an action preceding this retrieval definition.

• Hard-coding:
  Click the Run-time button to Off  (white) to make the Comparison Value field editable. Enter the desired data as fixed search criteria.

Grouping of the search criteria

When multiple search fields are combined into one group, they are treated as cumulatively narrowing search - i.e. all search conditions must be met in order for the retrieved row to be returned to the calling procedure. In other words, they are treated on the "AND" basis, as in the following example:

Here, the row would be returned (included in the list of matching rows) if "Freight" was greater than 100, AND "OrderDate" was before January 1, 2004, AND "RequiredDate" was before January 15, 2004.

Sometimes the search criteria need to be more flexible. Scribe provides a mechanism that allows flexible grouping of various search conditions by enclosing selected groups of search conditions into parentheses, and grouping them together through AND and OR operators. E.g., if the above example had to be formulated as "return rows that have "Freight" value greater than 100, AND either the "OrderDate" before January 1, 2004 OR "RequiredDate" before January 15, 2004, the search criteria could be formatted as follows:

with AND, OR, "(" and ")" operators dragged from the Palette.