`case(X;V1;R1;V2;R2;...;D)`

Returns the value corresponding to the case that a given value matches; if no cases match, returns the specified default value.

Syntax

case(X;V1;R1;V2;R2;...;D)

Input

Argument	Type	Description
`X`	any simple type	A scalar value or the name of a column
`V[N]`	any simple type	The value (or expression that evaluates to a value) to test for equality to `X`. The values specified for all instances of `V` must be the same type as `X`. A scalar value or the name of a column
`R[N]`	any simple type	The value to return if `V[N]` matches `X`. The values specified for all instances of `R` must be the same type (integer, decimal, or text). A scalar value or the name of a column
`D`	any simple type	The default return value (if `X` doesn't match any of the instances of `V`). The value specified for `D` must be the same type as the values specified for all instances of `R`. A scalar value or the name of a column

Note: There must be an even number of arguments (i.e., X, a series of C and R pairs, and one D argument).

Return Value

Returns a numeric or text value (depending on the type of the elements specified for R and D) corresponding to the following:

If X is V1, return R1; else if X is V2, return R2; and so on.
If X does not match any of the values specified by V[N], return D.

If any of the values corresponding to C[N] are N/A, an error is returned.

Sample Usage


`X`	`V1`	`R1`	`V2`	`R2`	`V3`	`R3`	`D`	`case(X;V1;R1;V2;R2;V3;R3;D)`
2	1	'one'	2	'two'	3	'three'	'too many'	'two'
99	1	'one'	2	'two'	3	'three'	'too many'	'too many'

Example

Let's use the table pub.demo.retail.item to illustrate the use of case(X;V1;R1;V2;R2;...;D).

Let's say we have three stores and that store 1 is located in New York, store 2 is located in Miami, and store 3 is in London. To add a column to our table that corresponds to the location for each store, we can use the following Macro Language code:

<willbe name="location" value="case(store;1;'New York';2;'Miami';3;'London';'Not a valid location')"/>

This will give us the following new column:

Since, in our example, there are no values in the store column that are not 1, 2, or 3, the default value ('Not a valid location') is never used.