SET EXACT

Topic group Related topics

Establishes the rules used to determine whether two character strings are equal.

Syntax

SET EXACT on | OFF

Description

Use SET EXACT to choose between a partial string match and an exact string match for certain Xbase DML commands, the Array class scan( ) method, and the = comparison operator. The == comparison operator always behaves like SET EXACT is ON.

When SET EXACT is OFF, partial string matches are performed. For example, SEEK("S") will find "Smith" in an index, and "Smith"="S" evaluates to true.

When SET EXACT is ON, the two strings must match exactly, except that trailing blanks are ignored. For example, SEEK("Smith") will find "Smith " in an index and "Smith"="Smith " will evaluate to true.

A partial string match can be thought of as a "begins with" check. For example, the SEEK( ) function searches for an index key value that begins with certain characters, and the = operator checks to see if one string begins with another string.

In language drivers that have primary and secondary weights for characters (not U.S. language drivers but most others), dBASE Plus compares characters by their primary weights when SET EXACT is OFF and by their secondary weights when SET EXACT is ON. For example, when SET EXACT is OFF, and the current language driver is German, "drücken" and "drucken" are equal.

OODML

Use the rowset object’s exactMatch property.