Family Historian User Group

I have been using FH for just over a year after importing from TMG. I have spent most of this time adding more data and reorganising the information I already had. I am now starting to work on reports and sentence construction where I am running into a few problems. I have had a search on this and had a look at the Calico help topics but I am still having a problem with angle brackets and multiple codes.
I have a 'CensusUK' fact imported from TMG and I wish to add the occupation of a witness into their fact sentence in their various roles e.g. wife. Following the example in the help file I have added the following to the witness note:

Occupation:a Dressmaker

Using the sentence:

{%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST%}'s occupation was given as {=GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%, "Occupation:")}

crrectly generates a sentence of:

Eleanor's occupation was given as a Dressmaker.

However, if the individual does not have an occupation then, obviously, the sentence should not appear thus I enclosed it in angle brackets i.e:

<{%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST%}'s occupation was given as {=GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%, "Occupation:")}>

In the case of Eleanor this now results in a sentence:

Eleanor's occupation was given as {=GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%, "Occupation:")}

If I change the sentence to:

<Their occupation was given as {=GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%, "Occupation:")}>

results in:

Their occupation was given as a Dressmaker.

However, it is not very elegant.

This is quite a long post for what I am sure is a simple solution to the problem but it is one that evades me. This is just one example of problems I am having with multiple codes within angled brackets and I would appreciate any help.

thanks,
Mac.

Welcome to the FHUG Mac.

The problem you describe is a common trap that new users fall into.

Inside < angle brackets > only one {code} can be used to determine whether its contents should be displayed.
The common example is <at {address}>

But your sentence has two {codes} inside the < angle brackets >,
i.e. {%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST%} and {=GetLabelledText(...)}
So FH gets confused, only checks the first {code} and treats the rest as plain text.

The solution is to use the =CombineText(...) function which nominates a specific parameter as the one to govern the display.
e.g.
{=CombineText( Text(%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST% . "'s occupation was given as"), GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%,"Occupation:"), "" )}
The 2nd parameter GetLabelledText(...) governs whether a display is produced.
The 1st parameter is the textual prefix and must be constructed within a Text(...) function.
The 3rd parameter is the empty suffix "".

BTW: As a separate discussion we strongly recommend that you convert your CensusUK custom facts to the standard Census events as per FHUG Knowledge Base articles Recording from a Census Record and Importing to Family Historian under Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG) in the Correcting Problems section for Census (CENS) facts.

Thanks for your prompt response Mike. I thought it may involve other functions but wasn't sure which one to use. I had a look at 'Multiple Field Codes and Separators' topic in the help file which seems to say that you can have multiple codes within angle brackets. I shall keep educating myself.
I'll also have a look at converting the census records to the standard fact type as I still have hundreds of census records to add. I aim to use Ancestral Sources for this so it would keep things consistent.

Regards,
Mac.

That topic in the Help applies to Source Template Formats and not Sentence Template Codes.

Thanks Mike. As I say, more education required. I ended up with the expression

{=TextIf(ContainsText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%,"Occupation:",),CombineText(". "Text(%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST% . "'s occupation was given as "), GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%,"Occupation:"), "" ),"")}

to take account of those records without an occupation.

I don't understand why you think you need the surrounding =TextIf(...) function.
If the Occupation: label is missing then GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%,"Occupation:") returns nothing which inhibits the entire CombineText(...) function completely so nothing is displayed.

So this should be sufficient:
{=CombineText( Text(%CUR~WITN>NAME:FIRST% . "'s occupation was given as"), GetLabelledText(%CUR~WITN.NOTE2%,"Occupation:"), "" )}

Strange. When I first used the expression on someone without an occupation it returned

Eleanor's occupation was given as.

Hence why I used the TextIf function. However, as you say, your simpler expression now works. I must have made an error somewhere. Thanks again.