Hi All,

I have a function that creates letter caption dynamically as follows:
I have table1 whose structure is:

format_id		label_name	value_ref
1			Claim Number	bbb.field1
1			Insured		bbb.field2
1			Claimant	bbb.field3

The size of label_name field is character 30. The second field stores expressions to be evaluated at the time of caption generation.

The desired result should be as follows using monospaced font, such as Courier New:

Claim Number	: 424546
Insured		: John Doe
Claimant	: Jane Doe

My function is as follows:

FUNCTION GetCaptions
	LPARAMETERS lpnFormat,lpnFileNumber
	LOCAL ARRAY laCaptions(1,2)
	SELECT * ;
		FROM mydb!table2 ;
		WHERE table1.filenum=m.lpnFileNumber ;
		INTO CURSOR bbb 
	m.lcReturn = [] 
	IF _tally > 0 ;
	THEN 
		SELECT label_name,value_ref ;
			FROM mydb!table1 ;
			WHERE table1.format_id=m.lpnFormat ;
			INTO ARRAY laCaptions
			
		FOR i = 1 TO _tally 
			m.lcReturn = m.lcReturn + ;
				ALLTRIM(m.laCaptions(i,1)) + ;
				REPLICATE(CHR(9),how many tabs)+[: ]+ ;
				TRANSFORM(EVALUATE(m.laCaptions(i,2)))+CHR(13) 
		NEXT 
		USE IN bbb 
	ENDIF 
	RETURN m.lcReturn 
ENDFUNC && GetCaptions

I would like an algrithm, to replace the NNN below, that will determine the number of tabs need to get the desired format.

REPLICATE(CHR(9),NNN)

TIA,

Any help or suggestion will be appreciated greatly.

Dawa


//Update to the message

I have posted the message above earlier.
I've modified the code:

REPLICATE(CHR(9),NNN)

to

SPACE(30-LEN(m.laCaptions(i,1))

So the code is as follows:

FUNCTION GetCaptions
	LPARAMETERS lpnFormat,lpnFileNumber
	LOCAL ARRAY laCaptions(1,2)
	SELECT * ;
		FROM mydb!table2 ;
		WHERE table1.filenum=m.lpnFileNumber ;
		INTO CURSOR bbb 
	m.lcReturn = [] 
	IF _tally > 0 ;
	THEN 
		SELECT label_name,value_ref ;
			FROM mydb!table1 ;
			WHERE table1.format_id=m.lpnFormat ;
			INTO ARRAY laCaptions
			
		FOR i = 1 TO _tally 
			m.lcReturn = m.lcReturn + ;
				ALLTRIM(m.laCaptions(i,1)) + ;
				SPACE(30-LEN(m.laCaptions(i,1))+[: ]+ ;
				TRANSFORM(EVALUATE(m.laCaptions(i,2)))+CHR(13) 
		NEXT 
		USE IN bbb 
	ENDIF 
	RETURN m.lcReturn 
ENDFUNC && GetCaptions

So I do get the desired format.

However if somebody, has a way of getting the exact number tabs, I would still appreciate the solution.

Dawa