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-
Subtraction, unary negative, concatenation (Math, Character)
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Syntax
<nNumber1> - <nNumber2> (subtraction)
<dDate1> - <dDate2> (subtraction)
<dDate> - <nNumber> (subtraction)
<cString1> - <cString2> (concatenation)
Type
Character, date, memo, numeric
Operands
<nNumber1> is a numeric value to decrement by <nNumber2>.
<dDate1> is a date value to decrement by <dDate2>.
<dDate> is a date value to decrement by <nNumber> days.
<cString2> is a character string to join to the end of
<cString1> after trimming the trailing blanks from <cString1>.
Description
The (-) operator performs different operations depending on the data
types of the operands:
. Unary negative sign (numeric): A numeric expression prefaced
with the minus (-) operator performs the equivalent of multiplying
the operand by (-1), returning a negative numeric value.
. Binary subtraction (numeric, date): If both operands are
numeric data type, <nNumber2> is subtracted from <nNumber1> and the
result is returned as a numeric value. If both operands are date
data type, <dDate2> is subtracted from <dDate1> and the result is
returned as a numeric value representing the number of days between
the two dates. If the left operand is date data type and the right
operand numeric data type, the <nNumber> is subtracted as days from
<dDate> and a date value is returned. If the order of operands is
reversed, a runtime error occurs.
. Concatenation (character, memo): If both operands are
character data type, <cString2> is joined to <cString1>, returning a
character string. Trailing blanks are trimmed from <cString1> and
joined to the end of the return string.
Examples
. These examples illustrate the various forms of the - operator:
// Binary subtraction (numeric)
? 1 - 1 // Result: 0
? 1 - 0 // Result: 1
? 0 - 1 // Result: -1
// Binary subtraction (date)
? CTOD("12/12/88") - 12 // Result: 11/30/88
? 12 - CTOD("12/12/88") // Result: Runtime error
// Concatenation (character)
? "Hi " - "There" + "*" // Result: Hithere *
See Also:
%
*
**
+
/
= (compound)
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