Basic Data Table Scripting
Before you can work with data table objects, you must open or create a data table, and assign a reference to the data table. This section covers the basic actions that you can perform on a data table, such as naming, saving, resizing, and so on.
Open a Data Table
Use the Open() function to open a data table.
•To simply open a data table without returning a reference to it:
Open("$SAMPLE_DATA/Big Class.jmp"); // just open the data table
•To open a data table and retain a reference to it:
dt = Open("$SAMPLE_DATA/Big Class.jmp"); // open and retain a reference
The path to the data table can be a quoted literal path (absolute or relative) or an unquoted expression that yields a pathname. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the location of the .jsl file (for a saved script). For unsaved scripts, the path is relative to your primary partition (Windows) or your <username>/Documents folder (Macintosh).
Open("../My Data/Repairs.jmp"); // relative path on Windows and Macintosh
Open("::My Data:Repairs.jmp"); // relative path on Macintosh
Open("C:/My Data/Repairs.jmp"); // absolute path
JMP provides shortcuts (path variables) to directories or files. Instead of entering the entire path to the directory or file, you include a path variable in the Open() expression. For example, JMP sample scripts typically use the $SAMPLE_DATA path variable to open files in the Samples/Data folder. For details about path variables, see Path Variables in Types of Data.
If you do not want to specify the entire path every time you open a data table, define a filepath string and concatenate the path with the filename:
myPath = "C:/My Data/Store25/Maintenance/Expenses/";
Open( myPath || "Repairs.jmp" );
Upon opening a data table, JMP stores the data table in memory. This means that if a script attempts to open a data table that is already open, the opened version appears. JMP does not read the version that is saved on your computer.
Thank you
