FMP 9 newbie questions

[DNNJ]

Hello FM Talk list;

I'm a past user of FMP 6 for one simple task. Tried Bento for current  
tasks, it's not up to what I need to do with it.

FMP 9 is a bit overkill for what I'm doing, but I might be able to do  
more in future.

For now, I need to "count if", but can't find a way. I have, let's  
say, records with fields that can contain yes, no, or maybe. I need a  
count of how many yesses, nos, maybes there are and be able to find  
percentages of y/n/m for all records and for those in found sets, say,  
by date range.

I can't figure out which function/calculation does this!

Also, having used Bento briefly, is it correct to say that the 'smart  
collections' would be akin to 'saved found sets' in FMP? or a  
continuously running script with multiple requests?

Right-o, then, basic these are indeed, but they are keeping me from my  
goal and providing more frustration than I have time for. If these are  
too basic for this crowd, please (politely) suggest an appropriate list.

Many Thanks,
David

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[Ramona Rock-2]

OK, I'll take a stab here.  :)  I'm not familiar with Bento at all, but . .
.


On 7/21/08 10:56 AM, "nusslist@..." <nusslist@...>
wrote:

> Hello FM Talk list;
>
> I'm a past user of FMP 6 for one simple task. Tried Bento for current
> tasks, it's not up to what I need to do with it.
>
> FMP 9 is a bit overkill for what I'm doing, but I might be able to do
> more in future.
>
> For now, I need to "count if", but can't find a way. I have, let's
> say, records with fields that can contain yes, no, or maybe. I need a
> count of how many yesses, nos, maybes there are and be able to find
> percentages of y/n/m for all records and for those in found sets, say,
> by date range.

it sounds like all you'd need here would be a few summary fields with
whatever you wanted to calculate . . . calculated in there.


>
> I can't figure out which function/calculation does this!


That would depend on what you were calculating.  You seem to have a few
different calculation needs there.  You have access to FMP 9, right?  If
that's the case, I'm guessing you also have the help files.  Under the Help
menu, pull down Filemaker Help, then type in "defining summary fields" and
go there.  I imagine that's the info you need.

>
> Also, having used Bento briefly, is it correct to say that the 'smart
> collections' would be akin to 'saved found sets' in FMP? or a
> continuously running script with multiple requests?
>
> Right-o, then, basic these are indeed, but they are keeping me from my
> goal and providing more frustration than I have time for. If these are
> too basic for this crowd, please (politely) suggest an appropriate list.
>
> Many Thanks,
> David

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[Ross Dickson]

David
Here's one way to get your Yes, No and Maybe totals, no scripts are needed:
One file:  CountIfs
containing two tables:
   Responses and
   Counts

In Responses the fields:
   Response (text)
   ResponseDate (date)
   ResponseKey (calc, text) = "All¶" & ResponseDate
   One (calc, number) = 1

In Counts, the fields:
   Yes (calc, text) = "Yes"
   No  (calc, text) = "No"
   Maybe (calc, text) = "Maybe"
   All (text)
   CountDates (text)
   CountKey (calc, text) = All & "¶" & CountDates

Three relationships between Counts and Responses:
   counts_RESP_YesToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey
   counts_RESP_NoToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey
   counts_RESP_MaybeToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey

Three more fields (calc, number) in Counts:
   SumYes = Sum(counts_RESP_YesToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey::One)
   SumYes = Sum(counts_RESP_NoToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey::One)
   SumYes = Sum(counts_RESP_MaybeToResponse_CountKeyToResponseKey::One)

Value list:
   All, Custom values - All
   ResponseDates, From Field - Responses::ResponseDate

In the Counts layout, make the field, All, be a checkbox displaying
values from the value list, All, and the field CountDates be a checkbox
displaying the values from the value list, ResponseDates.

Choosing All, and/or any of the dates in CountDates will generate the
desired numbers in the Sum fields.

Ross

David Nuss wrote:

> Hello FM Talk list;
>
> I'm a past user of FMP 6 for one simple task. Tried Bento for current
> tasks, it's not up to what I need to do with it.
>
> FMP 9 is a bit overkill for what I'm doing, but I might be able to do
> more in future.
>
> For now, I need to "count if", but can't find a way. I have, let's say,
> records with fields that can contain yes, no, or maybe. I need a count
> of how many yesses, nos, maybes there are and be able to find
> percentages of y/n/m for all records and for those in found sets, say,
> by date range.
>
> I can't figure out which function/calculation does this!
>
> Also, having used Bento briefly, is it correct to say that the 'smart
> collections' would be akin to 'saved found sets' in FMP? or a
> continuously running script with multiple requests?
>
> Right-o, then, basic these are indeed, but they are keeping me from my
> goal and providing more frustration than I have time for. If these are
> too basic for this crowd, please (politely) suggest an appropriate list.
>
> Many Thanks,
> David

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[DNNJ]

Ramona Rock-2 wrote:

OK, I'll take a stab here.  :)  I'm not familiar with Bento at all, but . .
.
On 7/21/08 10:56 AM, "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
wrote:
...
> For now, I need to "count if", but can't find a way. I have, let's
> say, records with fields that can contain yes, no, or maybe. I need a
> count of how many yesses, nos, maybes there are and be able to find
> percentages of y/n/m for all records and for those in found sets, say,
> by date range.

it sounds like all you'd need here would be a few summary fields with
whatever you wanted to calculate . . . calculated in there.
...  Under the Help
menu, pull down Filemaker Help, then type in "defining summary fields" and
go there.  I imagine that's the info you need.

>>Aha! From reading a book I had the impression the Summary field type was only for numbers. This lead solved one other problem but not yet this one, obtaining a count based on the content of a field. But I need to dig more and feel like I'm digging in the right spot at least!

[Tom Elliott]

How about having calculation fields that "convert" the text field to  
numbers and then using Summary field to sum these?

For example: textField can be 'yes", "no" or "maybe"; define number  
result calc fields:

cYes = If ( textfield = "yes" ; 1 ; 0)
cNo = If ( textField = "no" ; 1 ; 0 )
cMaybe = If (textfield = "maybe" ; 1 ; 0 )

and summary fields

sYesCount = Total of cYes
etc

cheers

Tom

On 22 Jul 2008, at 2:33, DNNJ wrote:

>
>
> Ramona Rock-2 wrote:
>>
>> OK, I'll take a stab here.  :)  I'm not familiar with Bento at all,  
>> but .
>> .
>> .
>> On 7/21/08 10:56 AM, "nusslist@..."  
>> <nusslist@...>
>> wrote:
>> ...
>>> For now, I need to "count if", but can't find a way. I have, let's
>>> say, records with fields that can contain yes, no, or maybe. I  
>>> need a
>>> count of how many yesses, nos, maybes there are and be able to find
>>> percentages of y/n/m for all records and for those in found sets,  
>>> say,
>>> by date range.
>>
>> it sounds like all you'd need here would be a few summary fields with
>> whatever you wanted to calculate . . . calculated in there.
>> ...  Under the Help
>> menu, pull down Filemaker Help, then type in "defining summary  
>> fields" and
>> go there.  I imagine that's the info you need.
>>
>>>> Aha! From reading a book I had the impression the Summary field  
>>>> type was
> only for numbers. This lead solved one other problem but not yet  
> this one,
> obtaining a count based on the content of a field. But I need to dig  
> more
> and feel like I'm digging in the right spot at least!
>>

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[Winfried Huslik]

Please avoid superfluous calculations.

This should be written as (if at all):
        cYes = textfield = "yes"
        cNo  = textField = "no"
        cMaybe = textField = "maybe"
which yields the same result.

Even better would be to redefine that whole stuff as
        numberfield = 0 // for no
        numberfield = 1 // for yes
        numberfield = 2 // for maybe
so you have a single field to search.


Winfried
www.fmdiff.com



On 2008-07-22, at 09:39, Tom Elliott wrote:

> cYes = If ( textfield = "yes" ; 1 ; 0)
> cNo = If ( textField = "no" ; 1 ; 0 )
> cMaybe = If (textfield = "maybe" ; 1 ; 0 )


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[DNNJ]

Going back to basics, it appears FMP doesn't like anything but one kind of value in a field, especially if you want to count instances. So our inclusion of three options (yes/no/na) in one field is problematic.

So I went in and created six new fields, each one for one of the options in two criteria.

Did a find for each Y/N/NA and then changed all of the new fields to match.

So now I have fields with only Y or N or NA, and can use the Summary Count Of function, since the field only contains one value or is empty.

Thanks to those of you who gave this such deep thought. I was working on a much more elemental level.

dn