Question

Check logic - should be easy, but why can't I get it right?

Asked by: EddieShipman

I am working with an Office Add-in that works in Outlook and I can't wrap my head around the logic in this statement:

if ((Length(Trim(IMail.To_)) = 0) and
    (Length(Trim(IMail.CC)) = 0) and
    (Length(Trim(IMail.BCC)) = 0)) or
    (Length(Trim(IMail.Subject)) = 0) then
begin
  ShowMessage('You must fill in To, CC, or BCC and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
  Exit;
end;

I need to show that message if To_, CC, and BCC are all empty and Subject is also empty.

I've tried a few different scenarios but can't get it like I like.
If I fill in the To and Subject, it shouldn't show the message.
If I fill in just the To, it should show.

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Asked On
2009-06-16 at 14:46:59ID24497346
Topic

Delphi Programming

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:01:45ID: 24643048

Complex if's are often much easier to debug if you condense out the subparts so that there are a lot of nested parentheses all over.  You can always "uncondense" later once it's working OK, if you want.

Plus, it's always easier to work with positive instead of negatives (at least, for me).

for example, let's create a simple function for whether or not you've "got" a field instead of whether you don't have a field.

function Got(S: string): boolean;
begin
  result := length(trim(S)) > 0;
end;

with IMail do
  if (Got(To_) or Got(CC) or Got(BCC)) and Got(Subject)
   then  // do nothing
   else
    begin
    ShowMessage;
    exit;
    end;


 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:02:28ID: 24643052

I meant to say "so that there are NOT a lot of nested parens..."    

 

by: TheRealLokiPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:02:30ID: 24643053

in reality, I think you are checking more than you need.
a valid message must have a To and a Subject, the CC and BCC are optional



//firstly, you always want the message if the subject or "TO" is blank
  if (Length(Trim(IMail.Subject)) = 0) OR
     (Length(Trim(IMail.To_)) = 0) then
  begin
    ShowMessage('You must fill in To, and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
    Exit;
  end;
// you cannot have a CC or BCC without a TO, so checking CC or BCC is unnecessary
                                              
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by: EddieShipmanPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:03:43ID: 24643064

You could have a CC or BCC without a To in Outlook.

 

by: JonasMalmstenPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:07:07ID: 24643087

Your logic is sound, the problem is somewhere else.

try this

var
  sTo, sCC, sBCC, sSubject: String;
begin
  sTo := Trim(IMail.To_);
  sCC := Trim(IMail.CC);
  sBCC := Trim(IMail.BCC)
  sSubject := Trim(IMail.Subject);

  if (sSubject = '') or
     ((sTo = '') and (sCC = '') and (sBCC = '')) then
  begin
    ShowMessage('You must fill in To, CC, or BCC and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
    Exit;
  end;

place a breakpoint on the if-statement and inspect the variables.

 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:14:19ID: 24643132

No Jonas, I think the original logic is not correct, and neither is yours. If you read the original request, all three strings AND the subject have to be blank.

So I think my original post is correct. However here is yet another alternate way to check.

Since all the three To CC and BCC must all be blank for this condition, you could simply combine them into one field and test that for length. It would be much easier.

as in

var
  Recipients,Subject: string;
begin
  Recipients := trim(IMail.To_) + trim(IMail.CC) + trim(Mail.BCC);
  Subject := trim(IMail.Subject);

  if (Recipients = '') AND (Subject = '') then
begin
  ShowMessage('You must fill in To, CC, or BCC and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
  Exit;
end;

 

by: EddieShipmanPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:15:51ID: 24643143

Well, You need to have either a To or BCC, you can't have only a CC, but you can have only a BCC.

 

by: EddieShipmanPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:17:33ID: 24643154

I will test some more of these tomorrow, have fun...

 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:19:06ID: 24643169

to further explain my above code, I combine all three recipient fields (To, CC, BCC) into a single string called "Recipients.".  

Thus, if ANY one of them is not blank, this Recipients string will also be not blank.

Then, you can combine that with either an AND or an OR (and if I read your original post correctly, it should be an AND - but I could be wrong....) for the combined condition with the "Subject" and then you should be all set.


 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 15:22:38ID: 24643190

"Well, You need to have either a To or BCC, you can't have only a CC, but you can have only a BCC."

OK, then I misread your original post I think.  I also think then that NONE of these solutions here will work exactly right, because no one here has the case where just a BCC and a SUBJECT will be OK.  Maybe Jonas has it right after all.... :)

 

by: JonasMalmstenPosted on 2009-06-16 at 16:55:23ID: 24643709

There are some contradicting instructions in this thread (I think we all were right at some point, all depending on which lines we read) :)

but if the most recent statement is correct, quoting "Well, You need to have either a To or BCC, you can't have only a CC, but you can have only a BCC." then it doesn't matter if CC is filled in or not, so just leave that out all together from your if-statement.

if ((Length(Trim(IMail.To_)) = 0) and
    (Length(Trim(IMail.BCC)) = 0)) or
    (Length(Trim(IMail.Subject)) = 0) then
begin
  ShowMessage('You must fill in To or BCC and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
  Exit;
end;

 

by: JosephGloszPosted on 2009-06-16 at 17:07:50ID: 24643769

Hmm.  The original request was this:

"I need to show that message if To_, CC, and BCC are all empty and Subject is also empty"

I think I got that request correct, in both my posts. However, as you say Jonas, the instructions seem to be evolving.  At this point, I would request a matrix or else this is going to go round and round.  Something like

TO    CC     BCC     SUBJ     ShowMessage?
  Y      Y          Y         Y        N
  N     N          N        N        Y
  N     N          Y         ...       ....

 

by: Geert_GruwezPosted on 2009-06-16 at 23:50:19ID: 24645477

with a matrix like this you can easily find the correct formula :
just fill in with 1 or 0

 

by: EddieShipmanPosted on 2009-06-17 at 06:44:23ID: 31593224

Jonas gets the most points as his solution was what I needed. But I used the Got() function from Joseph, too.

 

by: EddieShipmanPosted on 2009-06-17 at 07:36:33ID: 24648687

Here's what I'm going to be using, seems to work in all situations...

if not ((Got(IMail.To_) or Got(IMail.BCC)) and Got(IMail.Subject)) then
begin
  ShowMessage('You must fill in To or BCC and Subject to Save and Tag this message.');
  FExit := True;
end
else
begin
  if not FLoggedIn then
  begin
    ShowMessage('You must be logged in to use this feature.');
    FExit := True;
  end;
end;

                                              
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