Command MENU TO | Xbase++ | Alaska Software

Commands and Statements Commands and Statements

Activates light bar menu for previously defined PROMPTs.

MENU TO <VarName>

The result of the menu selection is assigned to the variable <VarName>. If the variable is not declared, it is created as a PRIVATE variable.

The dialog command MENU TO provides menu navigation for the menu items previously defined using the command @...PROMPT. The first menu item selected when MENU TO is called can be set by assigning the appropriate numeric value to the variable <VarName>. If <VarName> is not declared or not initialized, the menu selection begins with the first menu item.

Menu items are displayed in the order they were declared using the command @...PROMPT. The menu item currently selected is displayed in the "highlighted" color (second color value) of the system color setting set with SetColor(). The other menu items are displayed in the default color (first color value).

The highlight (lighted bar) identifying the currently selected menu item is moved using the arrow keys. If a PROMPT was defined using the MESSAGE option and the display of messages is turned on with SET MESSAGE TO <nRow>, the message associated with the menu item is also displayed. If SET WRAP is turned ON, the highlight jumps from the last menu item to the first if the Down Arrow key is pressed while the highlight is on the last item. Conversely, the lighted bar skips from the first menu item to the last if the Up Arrow key is pressed while the highlight is on the first item. If a letter key is pressed, the highlight skips directly to the menu item whose first letter matches the key.

Menu selection is made by pressing the Return key. The numeric value corresponding to the position of the selected menu item is assigned to the variable<VarName>. The Esc key also terminates the menu selection but assigns the value zero to <VarName>.

The following table lists the keys processed by the command MENU TO and the actions they cause:

Key	Default action
Up Arrow	Previous menu item
Down Arrow	Next menu item
Left Arrow	Previous menu item
Right Arrow	Next menu item
Home	First menu item
End	Last menu item
Page Up	Terminates, returns position of current menu item
Page Down	Terminates, returns position of current menu item
Return key	Terminates, returns position of current menu item
Esc	Terminates, returns 0
Beginning letter	Terminates, returns position of next menu item, whose name begins with the letter

Navigation of the menu can also be done using the mouse. For this to work, SetMouse(.T.) must be called prior to the command MENU TO. When the mouse is active, a selection can be made by a click of the left mouse button on one of the menu items defined with @...PROMPT.

MENU TO commands can be nested if a key is assigned to a code block that calls a function or procedure which executes another MENU TO.

@...PROMPT and MENU TO

// The example shows a horizontal menu which outputs 
// three menu items on the top screen row and displays 
// messages centered on the bottom row. 

PROCEDURE Main 
   LOCAL nMenuItem := 1, PromptList:={} 

   CLS 
   SetColor( "N/BG,W+/B" ) 
   @ 0, 0                  // fill first row with blank spaces 

   SET WRAP ON 
   SET MESSAGE TO MaxRow() CENTER 

   @ 0, 1 PROMPT " DBF file " ; 
                  MESSAGE "Open and close DBF files" 

   @ Row(), Col()  PROMPT " NTX file " ; 
                  MESSAGE "Open and close index files" 

   @ Row(), Col()  PROMPT " Find " ; 
                  MESSAGE "Find records" 

   MENU TO nMenuItem 

   DO CASE 
   CASE nMenuItem == 0 
      ? "Terminated without selection" 
   CASE nMenuItem == 1 
      ? "Select DBF file" 
   CASE nMenuItem == 2 
      ? "Select index file" 
   CASE nMenuItem == 3 
      ? "Find record" 
   ENDCASE 
RETURN

Command MENU TO Foundation