WHERE clause in a SMARTFORM loop, problems with parenthesis

Question

Hi all gurus,
a simple question: I'm coding a LOOP in the form builder for a smartform ... this simple loop should bind text elements to every position of a purchase order. The WHERE clause should be as follows:
WHERE GUID = WA_ITEM-GUID
AND ( TDID EQ 'ZDES' OR TDID EQ 'ZDST' ).
Anyway, in the Form Builder I didn't find a way to add parenthesis; I workarounded the problem with the following query:
(conditions in lines are in AND conjunction)
GUID EQ     WA_ITEM-GUID
TDID      EQ   'ZDES'
OR
GUID EQ     WA_ITEM-GUID                                                                               
TDID      EQ 'ZDST'.
It's quite a 'bad' way, but it works. I wonder if there's a way to express "complex" WHERE clauses (with addiction of parenthesis) in Form Builder.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

In this case, your solution is the one that works. However in more complex cases with more variables, this can proove difficult to make or mantain.
What I usually do is use the first part of the condition in the where and then add a condition to the printing area with the rest of the formula. Just remember to document this so that you'll find it easy and it's way more amintainable.
In this case the loop would contain WHERE GUID = WA_ITEM-GUID and the inside condition TDID EQ 'ZDES' OR TDID EQ 'ZDST. This creates the and between the two blocks.