Accessing data and properties in DataWindow programming environments

In each programming environment, you can use methods and sometimes expressions to access the data and properties of a DataWindow object.

Data

Methods for single items of data

These include GetItemString for data and Describe and Modify for properties. These methods are available in all environments.

DataWindow data expressions

These let you access single items and blocks of data. You can access data in a single column, data in selected rows, and ranges of rows and columns.

Data expressions have a variety of syntaxes depending on the amount of data you want to access.

You can get and set data values using the following syntax:

dwcontrol.Object.Data [ startrownum, startcolnum, endrownum, endcolnum ]

For a list of syntaxes, see Syntaxes for DataWindow data expressions.

Properties

Methods for properties

These are Describe and Modify. These methods are available in all environments.

DataWindow property expressions

These let you get and set the values of properties of the DataWindow definition and of controls contained within the definition, such as columns and text labels.

Property expressions take this form:

dwcontrol.Object.columnname.columnproperty = value 

Where to find information

This chapter discusses techniques for accessing data with emphasis on data expressions.

For information on accessing properties using methods or property expressions, see Accessing DataWindow Object Properties in Code