#LIKEF#

Description

The #LIKEF# and #LIKEW# reserved words are similar to the #FAIL# and #WARN# reserved words except that they look for similar values, not an exact match. If a similar match is not found, #LIKEF# logs a Fail and #LIKEW# logs a Warning.

Similar to the behavior of #FAIL# and #WARN# (and unlike the behavior of #CHECK#), if the comparison fails, PTF does not update the value. The steps only affect the error state of the execution log.

This table details ways #LIKEW# or #LIKEF# can match strings:

Type of Match	Pattern	Match (Log a Pass)	No Match (Log a Fail or Warn)
Multiple characters	a*a	aa, aBa, aBBBa	ABC
Multiple characters	*ab*	abc, AABB, Xab	aZb , bac
Multiple characters	ab*	abcdefg, abc	cab, aab
Special character	a[*]a	a*a	Aaa
Single character	a?a	aaa, a3a, aBa	ABBBa
Single digit	a#a	a0a, a1a, a2a	aaa, a10a
Range of characters	[a-z]	f, p, j	2, &
Outside a range	[!a-z]	9, &, %	b, a
Not a digit	[!0-9]	A, a, &,	0, 1, 9
Combined	a[!b-m]#	~ An9, az0, a99	abc, aj0

Example

Suppose a test requires verification of only the first several characters of a text entry. In the following example, the first step logs a Fail if the first two characters of the Benefit Plan field are not equal to US. The second step logs a Fail unless the first two characters of the Benefit Plan field are equal to US and the last character is equal to 1:

Type	Action	Recognition	Parameters	Value
Text	Set_Value	Name=PA_BENEFIT_PLAN		#LIKEF#US*
Text	Set_Value	Name=PA_BENEFIT_PLAN		#LIKEF#US*1

#LIKEF# and #LIKEW# only compare the date text of a date/time value. For example, some fields contain the current date and time. Use the #LIKEF##TODAY* construction to compare just the date portion of a Datetime field and ignore the time portion.

For example:

Type	Action	Recognition	Parameters	Value
Text	Set_Value	Name=PA_PROP_VOUCH_DTTM		#LIKEF##TODAY*