The use of any special characters in an EDE Item, an EDE filter item name or as an
EDE filter parameter, causes the EDE to display the wrong results.
The complex filter differs from the filters that are applied to individual columns, in that it can be created and applied to all the columns of your EDE View. This allows you to create a more complex filter using a set of parameters and operators to narrow down what is displayed by the EDE. The complex filter can be especially useful when your EDE contains many rows of information by filtering data in stages until you reach the specific data you require.
The complex filter is saved along with your EDE so that the next time you open your EDE the filter is applied automatically, you see only what you want to see. The filter can be edited again and again as your requirements change, or deleted so that all the results returned by the EDE are displayed. Each time you apply the filter the grid updates the results almost instantaneously.
When you open the Complex Filter, you are presented with a number of select lists:
Column Header
A list of all the column headers that are in the EDE. You select the header of the column you want to apply a filter to.
Operator
A list of all the available operators. You select the operator you want to apply to the selected column, for example; Contains, Is equal to.
Value
A dynamic field. Depending on the operator chosen, this is a select list or blank field where you type or select the value that you want the operator applied to, for example: FT.
Logical Operator
And/Or. You select one of these operators when adding a new row to your filter, creating a relation between two or more filters.
And
Use And when you want the new filter to be applied together with the previous filter. For example; Instrument Name > Contains - FE; AND Instrument Type - FE - D/P.
Or
se Or when you want the new filter to be applied independently of the previous filter. For example; Instrument Name > Contains - FE; OR FT.
And is by default the logical operator which is displayed first and take precedence over
the Or logical operator where necessary. You can use the Expression Builder in the Actions toolbar of the EDE to create an expression whose logical operator takes precedence
over that of the complex filter. For more information on the Expression Builder, see
Working with the EDE Expression Builder.
Complex Filter in a Converted EDE View
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After upgrading Smart Instrumentation, an EDE View that was converted from a Browser View with complex filters rounds up any numeric values to the nearest two decimal places. For this reason, the EDE's filter may retrieve more data values than you originally had in the filtered Browser View. When you open a converted EDE View for the first time, you see the filtered numerical data in a two-digit (after the period) format. In addition, when you open the Complex Filter, the filter value entered is also converted to a two-digit format. If you want to re-populate your converted EDE View with the full set of data, clear the filter.
Example of a Complex Filter
The grid displays and EDE View containing different Instruments, Instrument Types, Loop Names, and so forth. The original EDE View in this example (before applying the filter) contains over 15,000 items.
In the example shown below this complex filter is used to filter Instrument Names that contain FE or FT and have Instrument Types FE D/P Type Flow Element (Flow) or FT D/P Type Flow Transmitter (Flow).
A partial instance of the results of the complex filter
Example of an Expression
The exact same complex filter is shown below as an expression written in the Expression Builder.
Expression
The EDE display after the expression has been applied to the EDE.
