Data Placeholders can be used in the Criteria for a Remote Validation File to limit the data returned by the query, before filtering the final output file. These Data Placeholders are specified in braces, for example {PARTNO}. Typically, you woud use Data Placeholder as a value for a Criteria field, or in the WHERE clause of the SQL statement.

If you call CreateValidationRemote, the Match Fields are tested against the Data Placeholders and the Match Value is substituted for any matches. In addition, when writing the output file, the Match Fields and Match Values are tested against each record in the data file, and only matching records are written to the file.

Criteria fields or SQL Statements can support comparisons other than exact match. For example, the Criteria fields support >, >=, <>, <, and <=. Filter fields, however, only support exact matches. This can cause problems if you use the name of an actual Validation File field for the name of a Data Placeholder.

If you are performing an exact match using a Data Placeholder, it does not matter if your Data Placeholder matches the name of a field in the validation file. If you are using another comparison, you will need to use a different name for the Data Placeholder that does not match any of the Validation File field names. Otherwise, your returned data file will include only records which are an exact match to the Match Value.

If you are using a DOS-Based terminal, you must use Data Placeholders names that match an existing Validation File field. Therefore, you will not be able to use the other Criteria comparisons.