Alastair and everyone who contributed to this thread: That is, in fact, the conclusion I had come to before submitting this to the list. Simply change my time fields to text in the tables and be done with it. I never do any calculations but could always RTIME the text value if I ever needed to.
I wanted to try every workaround offered on the list and did. They would all work to the extent that Rbase will see any value entered not a time value as a null of sorts. 9999 for example will be changed back into 000. The underlying problem is that 000 is midnight and a real time. So, the kiss principle applies here. Thanks everyone. ~Claudine :) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:owner-rbase-l@;sonetmail.com] On Behalf Of Alastair Burr Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 2:56 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: NULL in Date Field Claudine, Welcome to the problem of time!! You simply can't have null time - it just doesn't exist in real life (that'll make some pedantic pipe up <g>) or R:Base. So, the solution... Depends on what you're doing but here are a couple of suggestions: Firstly, it sounds as if you are using a range of times. If those are only EVER specific intervals, 15 minutes or whatever, then you could use a time that is not part of your _value_ range as your null value. Maybe 12:01 or 00:01 and convert that to some suitable value for your report. If you use minutes but not seconds then you could use a hh:mm:ss value for your null - go down to thousandths of a second, if need be - 12:00:01.999 for you null, perhaps. Second option is to redefine your column to text and create a lookup table that stores your range of values plus an entry for your null. Then you force your users to look-up values on the form. A bit more work but, probably, a better way. If you need all values of time you could create columns for hours, minutes & seconds as integers and convert them to time with a null in any column producing your null value for the report but it seems like a lot of work for no real gain if you have a fixed range. Another way might be to have another column to validate the time column - any value you need in the time column and a flag in the second column if it's really null. A waste of space if your nulls are rare. Hope something suits you, Regards, Alastair. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Claudine Robbins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 7:34 PM Subject: RE: NULL in Date Field > Javier, David, > > I've tried every combination you have suggested. The 00:00 time is > really 12:00 AM, resetting it to NULL resets it to 12:00 AM. Using the > IF timefield = 000 THEN;ALTER TABLE...ALTER fieldname = 'N/A' TEXT seems > to work, so I'm following that thread right now. However, I have to run > to the office and scan for that friendgreeting virus one of my employees > let through this morning even though I forwarded the virus alert... > ~Claudine :) > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:owner-rbase-l@;sonetmail.com] > On Behalf Of David M. Blocker > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:47 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: NULL in Date Field > > Claudine > > Can you run an UPDATE afterwards to set all 00:00 times to NULL? > > David BLocker > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Claudine Robbins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:18 AM > Subject: NULL in Date Field > > > > I recently setup a table with times to be picked in a form with a > choose > > command. That works well. However, sometimes the time is unknown > and > > requires a blank entry, a NULL (-0-) would be fine but Rbase will > allow > > nothing but time values in a time field. Even forcing a -0- into the > > field doesn't work, Rbase converts it to 00:00 or 12:00 AM depending > on > > the time format. This time field prints on my report so I can't have > > any value when that value is unknown. > > > > I will now proceed with changing the two time fields in the table to > > TEXT in order to circumvent this but I thought I would submit it to > the > > list first and see if anyone can see around this corner. > > > > ~Claudine :) > > > > ================================================ > > TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: > > Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l > > ================================================ > > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l > > ================================================ > > TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/ > > > > > ================================================ > TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: > Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l > ================================================ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l > ================================================ > TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: > http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/ > > ================================================ > TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: > Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l > ================================================ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l > ================================================ > TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: > http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/ ================================================ TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l ================================================ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l ================================================ TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/ ================================================ TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: Send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: INTRO rbase-l ================================================ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body, put just two words: UNSUBSCRIBE rbase-l ================================================ TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: http://www.mail-archive.com/rbase-l%40sonetmail.com/
