Can you help me with my first Summarize operation?

[sgerber]

Re: Can you help me with my first Summarize operation?

Ken, my two issues are:
1. Not being allowed to see generated Xbasic for the entered Summarize operations once I've entered an expression.
2. Variables are not inserted into the Xbasic even though I clicked "var" and responded to the dialogue.

Are you telling me with certainty I'll be able to do this if I switch to the Genii?

BTW, I had Alpha V1 and Alpha V11 on the screen at the same time and I was cutting and pasting the 16 year old expressions into V11's expression builder. It's easier to do it without the Genii. All the expressions in my application have worked so far in V11 so why should I forget everything I ever knew about Version 1? Also, my 16 year-old GUI coding works also, so I don't think I should unlearn that either.

Another thing Ken, it would be easier for "newbies" to A11 if the help facility was actually helpful. I learned nothing new about Summarization from the Help. In fact the word "summarization" yields no hits. You have to enter "summarize". That serious flaw is riddled throughout the "Help" where it takes forever to find what you're looking for unless you know the precise technical term for what it is you're looking for. Look up "calculating totals" if you think I'm just whining.

Ken, I know you're smart with Alpha Five, but please don't lose empathy with people who are new to the current version, or worse, total newbies. Alpha Five is very hard to learn when you venture into many areas like scripting.

[forskare]

Re: Can you help me with my first Summarize operation?

My intent was to define the operation without using its Genii because the screens are indentical to those I've used in Version 1. Well, it's not being very accommodating.

Did you try using the Genies? V1 is more than prehistoric, to say the least. You need to put how you did things in V1 out of mind and concentrate on how v11 does it. That's what the genies are for.

[sgerber]

I need to create a Version 11 XBASIC script to summarize, update, then post data from one of my tables to a destination table. Since I'm lousy at V11's XBASIC I figured I would try to use the Control Panel's Operation feature. My intent was to define the operation without using its Genii because the screens are indentical to those I've used in Version 1. Well, it's not being very accommodating.

I selected my table name, gave it the name of my results table and began entering. First I entered a field "cust_sn" with a summarization of "Group By" and then "inv_date" with "max". I took a peek at the Xbasic it's generating and it looked great, lots of summarization syntax. Then I entered my 3rd field which is really an expression. I used the down arrow to select "expression" and the Expression Builder dialogue opened up and I entered my expression.

I then took a look at the Xbasic it was generating and it was blank. No Xbasic at all. I remove the expression and the previous Xbasic has returned. This is a very hostile thing to do to a newbie! :>) So my first question is why won't it let me enter expressions?

Assuming I get past this obstacle, the Summarization I want will require 2 user input variables. This software appears to be "variable friendly" so I clicked "var" and entered my first variable and variable type. This dialogue closes and there's no variable anywhere. I tried to RUN to see if I would be prompted and received an error.

Please don't ask me to use Alpha's Help facility. I did and it totally stunk. Instead of leading me through this from A to Z, it stopped at B. Doesn't even mention variables let alone guide me through entering them.

Well I'm stuck and unhappy. Are there any kind souls out there who can steer me through this?

Thanks ... Sam