I knew that my reply may ruffle some feathers. I took his request as not the entire file as it pertains to Data/Basic, ie not the English (UQL/MQL) processor. Hopefully Marinko knows the difference between processing the data in a program and processing it outside.
This also falls under yesterday's reply for ms Anita. Here's a guy, Marinko, who is asking about something that we all take for granted. We know that there's the SUM command at TCL and the SUM function in Data/Basic. While the results are the same, they're applied differently. If you review the other replies, some went a little overboard with their style. On a related topic. Some MV manuals that come in multiple books (pdf's) cause you to know the category (which book) to look in. The D3 manual (pdf), having only one comprehensive book, would have it's index as such: SUM command 3-123 SUM function 5-123 for the 2 separate chapters (Access and Basic respectively). Those multiple manuals don't help the newbies as clearly as they should. I think the overall tone between the newbies and us experienced guys is how to gracefully pass the torch to get them up to speed. As replied earlier, the 'reference' manuals are just that, references and not tutorials. Perhaps it's a lot harder than we think. We've got such a scattered collection of programming 'styles' all trying to pass as 'standards'. IHMO, since the new guys aren't creating new systems but rather jumping on a moving train, they could learn the 'house rules' that hopefully are consistent within the application they are primarily exposed to. Thus, they will at least perpetuate that 'standard' and learn from it. I've acquired my opinion of these different styles only due to having so many clients with previous software written by so many different programmers. Because of that, I can see the differences and IHMO, see good practices to keep and see bad ones to avoid. As I ponder the use of the word BAD in the prior paragraph and what pandora's box that may open, I mentally review some of the techniques that I've seen that I consider BAD. And what I've concluded is the reason for them being BAD is that they look like a work-around as the programmer probably didn't know what direct function they should have used. It all compiles. So maybe it falls back on the quality or purpose of the education process towards newbies. I don't think that programmers take MV classes (or seminars) like they used to (nee JES). Perhaps the existing environment that was created years ago and whose primary programmers haave since departed now has multiple technologies involved. It's like "Wanted: Java programmer with a whole bunch of other alphabetic contemporary skills. MV programming or Dartmouth Basic a plus" is the ad to get the next MV guy at that location. Anita and Marinko are not new programmers. They're new to MV. In fact, I don't know if there's any MV courses at the college level anymore. So our future is in the hands of getting these new guys up to speed. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone who learned MV first. It tends to come outside of academia and in the business world. I worked with 7 other languages before starting with MV decades ago. My 3 cents. Sorry for the duration. Mark Johnson ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 3:15 AM Subject: Re: [U2] SUM Function > Mark > > The post said 'data file field'. In other words, summing a field across an entire file. > > As for summing a specific variable: > > SUM(CONVERT(@VM:@SVM,@FM:@FM,Value)) > > > > Brian > > > Did we not confuse this person with too much of an answer. He doesn't ask > about the entire file so MQL is overkill. He doesn't ask about SQL so that > may be overkill as well. He doesn't ask about the entire file so the > READNEXT thing may also be overkill. > > Perhaps the answer is: > > * > *** OPEN and READ > <Any which way to OPEN and READ the REC of a file> > > * > *** TO GET THE TOTAL OF THIS FIELD IF IT'S MULTI-VALUED > TOT=SUM(REC<2>) > > * > *** TO GET THE TOTAL OF THIS FIELD IF IT'S SUB-VALUED > TOT=SUM(SUM(REC<2>)) > > If Marinko is new enough to MV to ask about SUM, then the other stuff may > confuse him with things that he may believe are necessary. I'm answering his > question as posted. It didn't imply the entire file. > > Just don't want to get the new people off on the wrong foot. > > Respectfully, > Mark Johnson > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Babic Marinko" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 10:04 AM > Subject: [U2] SUM Function > > > > Hi > > > > > > > > What is the best and fastest way to get the SUM of a specific numeric > > data file field in UniVerse Basic? > > > > > > > > Kind regards, > > > > > > > > Marinko > > ------- > > u2-users mailing list > > [email protected] > > To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ > ------- > u2-users mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ > ------- > u2-users mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
