Hi -

First, I want to say how thrilled I am with my new copy of Sesame 2.0.  I'll be glad when I get some experience with it, under my belt.  In the meantime, I am delighted with the table view; that alone makes it worth the money.

I am, however, having a problem with a number element.  Three fields are involved:  Unit, Price Per Unit, and Cost.

When I enter whole numbers in the Unit field, it multiplies the Price per unit and places the total in the Cost field.  It works fine.

However, when I enter a fraction, the fraction is ignored.  So if I enter .25 (x $8.00) the cost is shown as $0.00

If I enter 1.25 (x 8.00) the cost is shown as $8.00.  Help!

Thanks!

Ahhh! I just tested this, and I think I see the same thing.

Go into Manage Fields, select Change Field Type, select your Unit field, and set it to Money. Then test it, and let me know if that fixes it.

Carl -

Nice to hear from you.

I think I tried what you said, but "no cigar."  Once again, there are 3 fields involved:  (1) Quantity = How many of an item or what fraction of a pound (it is bound to number)  (2) Item Cost = The cost of one item or the cost per pound (it is bound to money  (3) Cost = the cost for the number of items (or the fraction of a pound) purchased (it is bound to money)

My code (Qty: On Element Exit), which worked in version 1.X was simply:

If not @isblank(Qty) then
Cost = Qty * Item Cost

If @isblank(Qty) then clear(Cost) 

I tried using this, but it did not make any difference.

If not @isblank(Qty) then
Cost = @tm(Qty) * Item Cost

If @isblank(Qty) then clear(Cost) 

I did try converting the qty element itself from number to money and that DID work, but my quantity field was $1.00 (I don't remember how fractions appeared but I would assume something like $0.25).

In any event, while that gives me the correct Cost, it is not acceptable in appearance.

I am wondering whether this could be a bug.

Since it is very rare that you would ever multiply money by money ($4.00 x $4.00)??? it is only logical that you should be able to multiply number x money.

Carl -

I haven't tried that, because it seems to me that (even if it did work) my numbers would appear as 1.00 and I don't want that.  

When it was a number field 1 would appear as 1 and .25 would appear as 0.25 (which I'm not crazy about, but at least it worked and wasn't as "offensive" as 1.00).

I would really like to know whether this is a bug or not.

Thanks!

Carl -

I found out why the @tm coding wasn't working.  Besides having the code in the Qty: On Element Exit field, I also had it in the Item Cost: On Element Exit Field.  I did that so that the Cost would be recalculated when there was a change in either the Qty field or the Item Cost field.  By changing it in both places, the Cost is now correctly calculated.

I also (coincidently) modified my programming to:

	If not @isblank(Qty) then
	Cost = @tm(Qty) * Item Cost
	else
	Clear(Cost)

 

Unfortunately, I am left with two problems (perhaps because of the change in type of decimal point ... which, admittedly, I don't know much about and don't necessarily want to). lol

Now, because I made my number field two decimal points, even as a number field I get 1.00 instead of 1 - and I really don't like this.  I only want the two decimal places to appear if the value is a whole number.  If I change the decimal points to "0" then I can't enter fractions when I need them.

Also, even though I say to CLEAR the Cost field (when Qty is blank) I am getting $0.00.

I would really like to have a way to resolve these two (for me) problems.

Also, while I hate to be "stubborn" about it ... it just doesn't make sense to have to convert a number field to money just to perform math.  Shouldn't it be possible for the database to contain "behind-the-scene" programming for us, if it is absolutely necessary?   It seems like it is an "anomoly" (compared to most programming) to have to do this.

I would love to hear from Ray or Mark about this.

Thanks!

Ray -

Thanks much.

I changed the quantity back to system settings and it works as I would expect.  Also, don't know whether it is coincidental or I did something else without realizing it, but the clear(Cost) is now working and clears the field instead of showing $0.00.

That leaves my one remaining question about whether something can be done to change the programming when using math between numbers and money.

The situation, as it is, is even worse than I thought because I found that it not only affected my databases, but my reports with calculations as well.  If left as is, that would mean that I would have to go through not only every database, but every report within all my databases, as well.

Thanks!