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Alpha Holidays

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    #1

    Alpha Holidays

    One more post for today. :)

    I am currently working on the specs for an app that will need to calculate number of working days and I have setup the holidays as I recommended under View Settings.

    Do the Bus_Days_Between() and rela�ed functions make note of a year change or do I have to manually set the holidays at the beginning of the year or write a script that automatically changes the year the first time the app runs in a new year?
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Alpha Holidays

    Hi Glen,
    I would be interested as well as to what this setting actually does---by the looks of it, you would have to manually enter in the actual dates of any special holiday without having the ability to say choose...the 2nd Tuesday of April for a holiday that occurs in this way every year. This apparently would have to be done for holidays each year as an entire date including year seems to be required.......all just guesses now and await those who have played with this actually.

    Makes the setting a bit manual really and I personally would create my own script to account for these. If this Holiday list is written to the registry (most likely) then it can be modified as well using xbasic.
    Mike
    __________________________________________
    It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
    It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
    Henry David Thoreau
    __________________________________________



    Comment

      #3
      Re: Alpha Holidays

      If this Holiday list is written to the registry (most likely) then it can be modified as well using xbasic.
      A_holiday.dbf in the exe directory unless otherwise specified.

      Docs for add_bus_days().

      Holiday_Table
      Optional. Default = "a_holidays.dbf". If Ignore_Holiday_Flag is "yes", the function uses the list of holidays is supplied in Holiday_Table. If Holiday_Table is blank, then Alpha Five uses the "a_holidays.dbf" table which is contained in the Alpha Five program folder. The holidays in the "a_holidays.dbf" table are defined in the Settings dialog box, accessed with the View > Settings > System > Holidays command from the Alpha Five menus.
      There can be only one.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Alpha Holidays

        Thanks Stan for additional info....

        A further question that comes to mind....the way it is stated, Alpha will only use ONE of the two tables and not a combination of the two....IOW the ones a user (developer) can add are not in addition to the existing default holidays but would replace them? So if even ONE additional holiday would be wanted in the list to be used, ALL holidays would have to be in the list? Seems so. And does the list continue automatically for succeeding years when a holiday has a set date?

        Also, what about recurring holidays like Thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday of November) which does not have a set date? Any way to have this added to the list? Just curious if you have knowledge as am sure it will be an issue some time or another eventually.
        Mike
        __________________________________________
        It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
        It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
        Henry David Thoreau
        __________________________________________



        Comment

          #5
          Re: Alpha Holidays

          I've never used the feature, just remembered the mention in the docs.
          There can be only one.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Alpha Holidays

            Rather than using Alpha's holiday file, we set up our own table which can be accessed by functions such as Bus_Days_Between(). A form has a button to extend all holidays one more year. Not having smart rules (e.g. third Thursday of the month), it simply takes the holidays of the last year on file and appends records using the same days of the months (as a guess). After doing such, the user will have to edit the new dates so that Good Friday falls on a Friday, etc.

            So, like Mike described, our system is more or less manual for one time per year. But it doesn't require typing in all of the holiday names - merely adjusting the dates where appropriate.

            Steve

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Alpha Holidays

              Originally posted by Steve Andrews View Post
              ...it simply takes the holidays of the last year on file and appends records using the same days of the months (as a guess)...
              Here is a function that can be put in a loop to correctly return the date of common holidays:

              http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...hlight=holiday
              Peter
              AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

               [email protected]
              https://www.alphabasesolutions.com

              Comment

                #8
                A liittle help on this

                I initially set up holidays in preferences. However my formula does not seem to reduce the date count for the days. I also created a holiday table with same results. Coupled with the above I have searched the entire computer for a_holday.dbf table and it is not there. Reading the help I presume that when I create holidays in settings this creates the a_holiday table. If I create a table holiday_table then the program will look at this first before it looks at the other. Is this correct or am I confused? I have tried various things in the formula to get my answer but no matter what I do the holidays are still counted. The below is an example where holiday_table = the table I created

                BUS_DAYS_BETWEEN(DATEFROM,DATETO,"Yes","holiday_table")

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Alpha Holidays

                  Mark,
                  I have done this successfully a long time ago.
                  From memory the key is that the file location must be specified.
                  Use something like:

                  Code:
                  cHolidayFile = :a5.Get_Path() +  "\a_holidays"
BUS_DAYS_BETWEEN(DATEFROM,DATETO,"Yes",cHolidayFile)
                  I think the file MUST be named "a_holidays.dbf" and it is best to put it in the application folder.
                  Garry

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Alpha Holidays

                    Originally posted by Garry Flanigan View Post
                    From memory the key is that the file location must be specified.
                    .
                    .
                    .
                    I think the file MUST be named "a_holidays.dbf" and it is best to put it in the application folder.
                    Garry
                    Our file is named "Holidays.dbf", it's located in the database folder, and we never specify the path when using the related functions. It works fully well in calculating the BUS_DAYS_BETWEEN().

                    I think that one factor may be the table structure. What is your field name for the date? Ours is simply "Date" which corresponds to that of a_holidays.dbf. Being an indexed field, we get the following:
                    Code:
                    ?exist({07/04/2008},"holidays","Date")
= .T.
                    It could be that the Alpha functions internally check the dates involved against a "Date" index to see if they are indeed holidays. This is just a hunch. I only know that we coincidentally have the same name as a_holiday.dbf for the date field and it works. I haven't tested it with a different field name.

                    Steve

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Alpha Holidays

                      Based on Steve's statement I finally go this to work. What I found was the a_holiday.dbf table created by Alpha in settings was actually being stored in the user profile of windows, not the DB directory. This path I found in Settings Directory area. I confirmed this on two machines. The Holiday table that I created did not work as I named the date field "Holiday". When I changed it to "Date" as suggested by Steve, it worked.

                      Thank you for all input.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Alpha Holidays

                        In a multi-user environment the holiday table is certainly best kept in the application folder and, in order to eliminate any confusion, if you use the code I supplied, the application will never use the "local" holidays table. But as you are not using using the table name "a_holidays.dbf" that I use then your solution will still work.
                        I never thought of your field name being wrong as I just copied the Alpha "a_holidays.dbf" to my application folder and the name was therefore correct.
                        Garry

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Alpha Holidays

                          Thanks Gary,

                          I did actually use your structure as well to achieve the result so I would like to acknowledge that as well. It confused me a little as I put this in the as a Field rule in a calc field. I could not rationalise the first line in the expression builder but ended up with

                          BUS_DAYS_BETWEEN(DATEFROM,DATETO,"Yes",:a5.Get_Path() + "\holiday_table")

                          Which worked. (After I changed the name of the Date field to Date)

                          Comment

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