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- Dear Maxess User,
-
- Maxess is a BBS specially designed to use with Access - the new database
- system from Microsoft. In fact, Maxess is partially embedded in Access.
- As far as files and messages are concerned, it is not much different than
- any other BBS. What is new and exciting in Maxess is its ability to
- perform complex queries in Access tables.
- Each Access table has its own set of fields. For instance the Users
- table has fields like Name, Zip, Country, Phone, etc. You'll be able to
- search on one or more of these fields simultaneously. All you have to do
- is select which field(s) you want and then specify a search condition.
-
- When you choose "S" (for <S>earch in table xxx) from the main menu, a list
- of table fields is displayed. You may choose one or more field numbers
- separated by commas and press Return.
- By entering "*"(asterisk), all records from the table are displayed
- at once. By entering "+"(plus sign) all field numbers are selected.
- If there is a selection, you have to specify a search criteria for each
- of the chosen fields. Prompts might be ignored by responding with Return.
- By default all conditions are combined with the AND logical operator,
- unless the OR keyword is explicitly used. Here is an example :
-
- Search in Files by:
- 1. FileName 3. Size
- 2. Location 4. Date
- Enter numbers (ex. 1,3,4) or +/* > 1,1,4,4
- (T) FileName [".TXT" OR
- (T) FileName [".DOC"
- (D) Date !<1/1/93@
- (D) Date <7/1/93
-
- This query specification is translated as:
- "Find all file-records with extension TXT or DOC and dates between
- 1/1/93 and 7/1/93 sorted by date". Please notice the duplicate
- selection of fields 1 and 4 and the explicit use of the OR keyword.
- The "at" character (@) at the end of the first date condition
- determines the sort order. The sort order is always ascending.
- There is a field type shown in parenthesis in front of each field
- prompt. Field types have conditional operators related to them:
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- Field Type Operators Description
- ---------- ---------------- -----------
- (D)=date = or < or >
- (N)=number = or < or >
- (T)=text = or < or > or [ [ means "contain"
- (L)=logical =T or =Y T is "true"(or Y for "yes")
- =F or =N F is "false(or N for "no")
- any ! NOT (to be input first)
- any @ SORT BY (to be input last)
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- All operators are considered comparison operators except !(NOT), AND
- and OR, which are logical operators. The order of precedence for
- the logical operators is : !(NOT), AND, OR. According to this rule,
- expressions with negation (!) are evaluated first, AND expressions
- next and OR expressions are evaluated last.
- Please,notice that operators are strictly related to their own field
- types and shouldn't be used with other field types. For instance,
- operator =T for logicals (L) cannot be used with text fields (T).
-
- We hope these simple rules will help you get started and allow you
- to use the full capacity of Maxess BBS.
-
- We enjoy having you online !
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