In CSPro 4.1.002 there are three small language changes and additions that may make writing code easier. First, the change:

In the past, when using the count function it was necessary to specify what record or group you wanted to search through (in the above case, POP_REC). Now you can write the code without specifying this clause.

The seek function, new to CSPro 4.1, searches a record for the first instance of something being true. Now, in CSPro 4.1.002, you can search for the nth occurrence of the conditional statement. For example, this loop will continue until there are no longer two spouses in a household:

Finally, the sort function has long been a useful feature of the CSPro language, but now you can use it with a where statement. For example, a common request is to have a roster sorted based on relationships. This example sorts a roster by relationship, and then sorts the children in order by descending age:

CSPro does not have a constant modifier that can be used to indicate that a variable cannot be modified, but the principle of using constant values is still one that is useful for CSPro users. For example, if your task is to write an edit program that replaces invalid sex values with a random selection of the previous 10 valid sex values, here are two ways you could code it.

Version 1

Version 2

The first version is the way you might have coded this application using older versions of CSPro. The second version uses features in CSPro 4.1. The second version shows how you can initialize the values for temporary variables and arrays while declaring them in PROC GLOBAL. It also shows the use of the inc (increment) function, as well as the new CSPro 4.1.002 feature which allows you to specify the size of your array by using a declared variable.

The advantages of the second version are two-fold. First, the amount of code is reduced. Secondly, the code is much more dynamic. If, for instance, you are told that the edit should now choose between the previous 20 valid sex values, you only need to change the value of sizeSexHD. Changing this one value affects the size of the array, the number of times that the array is initialized with the alternating values of 1 and 2, the reset of the sexCounter increment variable, and the selection of values from the array.

Using constants when possible is a great idea for edits as well. Using these arrays to store constant values makes code much clearer, and allows for the easy editing of the parameters under which your program runs. Note in the following example the use of a value set to define the size of the educationAges array. These constant values can now be accessed using the getdeck function.

CSPro 4.1.002 will be officially released on Monday. Over the next few days I will blog about some new features that exist in this minor upgrade. Any applications written for CSPro 4.1.001 will work on this new version, though some people who have defined an absolute value function named abs will have to remove it from their programs, as it is now a built-in function.

What are the next steps for CSPro? Unicode support, support for handheld devices (including Android devices), and RDBMS support are among the most requested features. If you have a feature that you would like the developers to consider, post about it in the comments.

Enjoy CSPro 4.1.002.

Welcome to the new look and feel of CSPro Users. The same content from the previous site is here, but now powered by a different CMS (WordPress instead of Drupal).

The big change with this new website will be the addition of a blog that details ways to use CSPro to process data, as well as a series of eLearning videos.