Document Templates : Principles of DGL : Special Features of DGL : Database Extractions

Database Extractions

A set of functions can be used to extract database information regarding specific elements and produce lists of elements according to specified criteria. Database extraction functions and their use are explained in Documentor Functions.

There are several kinds of functions:

Single-Element Functions—Return element details (as strings, or numbers). Such functions can be used to return an element name, synonym, type, definition, short description, or attribute values. Parts of an element’s long description may be retrieved through the use of keywords.
Query Functions—Retrieve a list of elements having a certain relationship with other specified elements or having a specified attribute value. For example, you may retrieve all descendants of a given activity and store them in a list.
Utility Functions—Perform operations and manipulations (e.g. sort) on lists, single integers and strings.