Since we are throwing coins into the problem, my two cents is that you should
never have a Primary Key (unique field or combination of fields that describe a
record eg for linking) that has any meaning.
Linking on the (LastName, Firstname) pair is bound to cause you problems, if
not today it will tomorrow or the next day. A typo, a spelling mistake, a
marriage, a change of name, two John James Brown's - any of those things will
create a problem. I know putting a Cascade on the link can marginally overcome
some of those issues, but it is far better to have something meaningless like
an artificially created ID number, an::IN (or other techniques described in
Ralph Alvy's book) would be far better.
Additionally apart from the confusion it can cause, linking on that combination
will be wasteful. You say your mainfield on P1 does double duty as a "Company
Name" field so you will need to allow at least say 60 bytes eg A60 format,
which will mean every time it is used in an index another 60 bytes is used. An
::IN field will consume about 8 bytes. Ultimately complex applications will
have many panels, with often two or three indexes, and since in each you will
probably want to put the Primary key to ensure uniquesness of the index, you
could find yourself with a 5 panel application with say 3 indexes consuming
almost a kilobyte of indexing per record as opposed to about 120 bytes. It
also really sucks to have your index file larger than your data files.
Larger indexes make the application slower.
The suggestion of splitting the LastName, Firstname pair on P1 rather than in
the target panel causes an additional problem. Since the MainField on P1 might
not contain a persons name but could contain a company, if you were to parse
the data entry to Last Name, First Name fields, then in the case of company the
one of those field will be blank. It is never a good idea to include an empty
field in the field set making up the Primary Key.
Unless you have some very exotic reason to do so, I think you should avoid
linking on LastName, Firstname. You will save confusion, disk space, and
processing time.
Regards
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: Laurie Corvacho
To: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Re: subfield function and creating a record
inanotherusing data link.
Hi, Victor,
Just my 2 cents worth - I would probably make hidden fields in the original
data entry panel with formulas that break out the name into first and last, and
then make the panel links back and forth between the 2 panels on those hidden
fields, rather than the whole name field.
Laurie
----- Original Message -----
From: Victor Warner
To: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Re: subfield function and creating a record in
anotherusing data link.
Ralph,
Thank you for the reply. I am not worried about the data entry (as only I
will be using the database). The field in the first panel is more of a display
name and can contain the name of companies.
As to your second point, you are right about the misdiscription of the
panel link but I just entered here for the purpose of an example.
However, what I am doing, is it achievable in the way I am doing it?
Victor Warner.
Ralph Alvy wrote:
Victor Warner wrote:
I would like to know if the following is possible:
1. I have two panels. The first panel contains a field ("MainField")
where I enter the name of a person in the following format:
Smith, John James
Atberg, Mary Jane
etc
2. In the second panel I have contact details for the person with
separate fields for first name, last name and so on
3. I have created a data link from MainField in panel 1 to the last
name field in the second panel with Prompt Create set. I have tested it
and it works. Ie when typing in a name in the first panel a record is
created in the second panel.
4. In the second panel I have created the required panel link to the
first panel and in the last name field I have entered a subfield
function to use only the last name from "Smith, John James":
subfield[P1F1;",";1]
but it does not work. Whether with or without this function, I still get
"Smith, John James" in the second panel last name field.
Is what I wish to do achievable and am I doing it in the right way?
Help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Victor Warner.
A couple of points...
1. Don't you worry about sloppy data entry in Panel 1? You're relying on the
data entry person entering the comma, etc. It seems to me to be safer to
have them enter Last Name, First Name, Middle Name in separate fields, and
let a formula in the another field join them if want.
2. subfield[P1F1;",";1] doesn't look right. The first argument should be a
field grabbed via a link. Something like this:
subfield[P2F10P1F1;",";1]
where P2F10 is the link that takes you to Panel 1.
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