Understanding the Study Upgrade Expression Checker report

 

 

This indicates that Arezzo 7 (used in MACRO v4) was unable to recognise an expression.

 

Check to see if the expression is affected by one of the following issues. Known causes of an Arezzo syntax error include:

• Unquoted free text validation messages

• Quoted validation messages that contain single quotes. For example:

'This is before patient's randomisation'

The correct expression uses two single quotes:

'This is before patient''s randomisation'

• Use of any or every on the right-hand side of an operator. For example:

me:value > any( SystolicBP )

In Arezzo 7, 'any' and 'every' can only be used on the left-hand side of an operator. For example:

any( SystolicBP ) < me:value

• any or every not used correctly. For example:

any(VAE:FAE:SER) oneof [1,2]

• case expressions with double brackets round each option. For example:

case( ((severity = 1, 'Mild')), ((severity = 2, 'Severe')) )

The correct form of this expression is:

case( (severity = 1, 'Mild'), (severity = 2, 'Severe') )

• Lines that start with the % character (these were accepted as Prolog comments in Arezzo 5, but they are not recognised in Arezzo 7). For example:

% Check weight is in range

me:value < 100

The 'comment' lines must be removed for MACRO v4.

• String concatenation that includes unquoted symbols such as + - / or *. For example:

'a' & + & 'b'

The correct form of this expression is:

'a' & '+' & 'b'

 

This indicates that the every set operator has been used.

 

Check for possible occurrences of an empty set during Data Entry, because the behaviour with empty sets differs between MACRO v3 and MACRO v4 (Known Issue 2639). For example:

every( pulse ) > 90

If the pulse question has no values, this evaluates to True in MACRO v4 but False in MACRO v3.

 

This indicates that the timenow or now function has been used in a derivation.

 

In MACRO v3, if a question contains a derivation referring to the current time (timenow or now), this value would be evaluated when saving or when updating other eForm values, but in MACRO v4 the value is only updated when opening the eForm.

 

Check whether this difference in behaviour will have an impact on your study.

 

This indicates that the dateof function has been used with a study term.

 

Study terms (of the form person:xxx) are stored differently in MACRO v4, and the dateof function no longer works with them. The most likely use of this is to determine the date of registration, i.e.

dateof( person:subjectidentifier )

 

Check whether this difference in behaviour will have an impact on your study.

 

This indicates that the datepart function has been used with a time unit.

 

In MACRO v3, the datepart function returns 0 if used with time units and a date-only question, but in MACRO v4 the result is blank. For example:

datepart( hours, DOB )

 

Check whether the question is date-only, and if so how the different behaviour will affect your data.

 

This indicates that a validation condition or validation message has been found that references the question code itself.

 

In these cases, the behaviour in MACRO v3 differs between Web and Windows Data Entry (validations do not always work as expected in Windows DE). Such conditions will work correctly in MACRO v4, although the desired behaviour should be checked. Note that it is not recommended to use the question code to refer to the current value being validated in a validation condition. The term me:value should always be used instead, as this is guaranteed to hold the correct value just entered.

 

For example, for the question healthy, the validation condition:

healthy = 1

should instead be written:

me:value = 1

 

This particular check also identifies expressions designed to look for duplicates in a Repeating Question Group, as detailed in the MACRO v3 Help for Windows Data Entry. This expression does not work in MACRO v3 Web Data Entry, nor does it work in MACRO v4 (Known Issue 2453).

 

Note that the Expression Checker will report question self-references even where a relative cycle specifier has been included, e.g. q(next) or q(previous). Risks for any such expressions (that do not refer to the actual current value) can safely be ignored.

This indicates that an unformatted date question (i.e. one not enclosed in the format_date function) has been found in a uniqueness check, label or derivation expression.

 

The default display of a date value has changed from date(Y,M,D) in MACRO v3 to Y/M/D in MACRO v4, so evaluation of expressions containing these values is likely to change after the upgrade.

 

An important example is the use of an unformatted date value in a Registration Uniqueness Check, because new values in Y/M/D format will not match the previously saved values in date(Y,M,D) format.

 

Check whether this difference in behaviour will have an impact on your study.

 

This indicates that the isknown function has been used with an unknown question and a cycle specifier. For example:

isknown( xxx(this) )

 

If xxx is not the code of any defined question, the condition evaluates to False in MACRO v3 but True in MACRO v4 (Known Issue 2662).

 

The Expression Checker does not identify uses of

isknown( yyy(this) )

where yyy is defined as a question but is not on the current eForm, where the same issue applies.

 

Check whether this difference in behaviour will have an impact on your study. Note that the Arezzo Term Checker accessed via the View menu in the MACRO Study Definition module (v3 and v4) will highlight the use of undefined question codes.

 

This indicates that the like operator has been used. This comparison operator is case-insensitive in MACRO v3, but case-sensitive in MACRO v4 (Known Issue 2634).

 

Check whether this difference in behaviour will have an impact on your study.

 

This indicates that an unexpected error occurred during the analysis of an expression. The error message is written to the main SDDU message window, and echoed to the Expression Checker log file. Please contact Customer Support for further advice, with details of the actual error message reported.