`colunion(X;Y)`

Returns a string consisting of the union of values from a given set of columns concatenated together using the specified separator, sorted in ascending order.

Syntax

colunion(X;Y)

Input

Argument	Type	Description
`X`	any	A list of column names
`Y`	text	One or more characters to be used as the separator

Return Value

For each row of the table, colunion returns the text string consisting of the union of the values for that row from all columns in X, concatenated together using the separator specified by Y. The values in the resultant string are sorted in ascending order. Duplicate values are eliminated in the union. This function provides a way of combining the values of several columns into one column.

Note: Numeric values are automatically converted to text.

N/A values are ignored.

Sample Usage


`values`	`sep`	`colunion(values;sep)`
'dog' 'cat' 'dog'	','	'cat,dog'

Example

In the "Product Master" table (pub.demo.retail.prod), let's say we wanted to create a computed column that consisted of the division (div), department number (dept), and department description (deptdesc), separated by slashes ("/"). We could do this by using the colunion(X;Y) function and specifying the three column names in the list for the X parameter and the slash for the Y parameter.

<base table="pub.demo.retail.prod"/>
<willbe name="colunion_results" 
 value="colunion(dept div deptdesc;'/')"/>
<colord cols="colunion_results"/>

This would give us the following results:

Note: Although the column names are specified to the function in the order: dept, div, and deptdesc, colunion orders the results in ascending order. So, in our example, the results are ordered: div, dept, and deptdesc.