Does any of the related data in other tables have dates? If so, you could pick the data most likely to be close to the first date and update you new column
Assuming table1 is the table you are adding Table1Added DATE (EVERY Column like this in the DB should have a unique name) column to: Drop view TempDate Create temp view TempDate (linkcolumnname, Table1Added) + As select linkcolumnname, MIN(Table2Date) from table2 group by linkcolumnname Update table1 set Table1Added = t1.Table1Added + >From TempDate t1, table1 t2 where t1.linkcolumnname = t2.linkcolumnname + And (t2.Table1Added is NULL or t2.Table1Added > t1.Table1Added) You could repeat this process using different table2's until all rows in table1 have a Table1Added date. While the dates would not be guaranteed to be absolutely accurate, they would be as close as you can get by reverse engineering the related data. Dennis McGrath ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Emmitt Dove Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 10:11 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Help - select by date where date not column You won't be able to recover the past, but it would be useful going forward. Setting up a default of .#DATE for a column (a new column?) will cause that column to be populated with the current date when a record is added. You would NOT want to do this in a change form, only an add form. Your reporting process could then use this date as you wish. But any earlier data will not have dates in that column. Emmitt Dove Manager, Converting Applications Development Evergreen Packaging, Inc. [email protected] (203) 214-5683 m (203) 643-8022 o (203) 643-8086 f [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of cfgrimes Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 10:24 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Help - select by date where date not column Emmitt, Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and for the caution on column setup in my table. I'm afraid setting up a .#Date in forms on one of my pre-existing columns wouldn't help me in using that form field in my report search and printout- unless there is a way to do that that I am unaware of. I was almost positive there was no "workaround" for what I wanted, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Cathy ----- Original Message ----- From: Emmitt Dove<mailto:[email protected]> To: RBASE-L Mailing List<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 6:53 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Help - select by date where date not column Cathy, No, R:BASE does not store any hidden dates. Also, you can set a column to default to .#DATE in forms, but be careful about making it a computed column on the table. If you make it a computed column, the date will change any time you touch the row, whether you want it to change or not. Example: if you reload the database, all the rows will take on the current date. Emmitt Dove Manager, Converting Applications Development Evergreen Packaging, Inc. [email protected] (203) 214-5683 m (203) 643-8022 o (203) 643-8086 f [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of cfgrimes Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 8:47 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Help - select by date where date not column This group is way out of my league, so I hope this is an acceptable question for you. I am an individual RBase user -not a programmer and have only intermediate computer knowledge. Though I have used RBase since early Dos days, my expertise/knowledge of this program is limited only to what I needed to learn for my personal data entry, forms and reports. So I'm sure 98% of the complex programming you will be discussing here will be way over my head, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask for help if I had a few questions. I have the latest RBase version now. Question. Is there any way I can search for rows (or print out report) in a database table by the actual date the row was entered if the table does NOT have an autodate column to search by (i.e., does R:Base create a date (hidden) for each row that is added or modified that is searchable)? I have thousands of rows and didn't want to take space in the old days for autodate column, and if I try to add now, will only get the same current date the column is added (invalid for all previous entries). Thank you in advance. Cathy Huntington Beach, Ca
