Counting Words in memo fields

[Bob Whitaker]

Has anyone succeeded in doing this and how did they achieve it.
Thanks
Bob Whitaker

[John Walsh]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Dear Bob,

I don't know of an easy way of doing this (although there may be) but here is a way it can be done.

1. Create a new table called "memo_count". Define a memo field called "memos".

2. Define an index for above named "memos" with the expression Keywords("memos"), no filter and include all.

3. Create a form for above named "memo_count". Define a layout variable in the form settings called "count" as N.
Then place this field and the "memos" field on the form. Also add a close button. In form actions use the "on_activate" event to run the following xbasic code:
tbl=table.current()
indx=tbl.index_get("memos")
count=indx.records_get()
this.resynch()

4. Edit the form that contains your memo field. Define a global variable named "marker" as N. Using the forms "on_fetch" event, assign the marker variable the recno() value. (i.e. marker=recno()).

5. Create a button on the form and attatch the xbasic code which I have enclosed with this message.

6. Create an append operation and name it "append_memos". The table to append to is the "memo_count" and the tranaction table is the one that contains your memo field to count (i.e. "your_table"). Filter "your_table" with this expression (recno()=var->marker). The "memos" field is then appended by selecting the name of the memo field from "your_table".

When you press the button on your form, it opens and zaps the memo count table then appends only the one record you are looking at (as the marker variable was assigned the record number upon fetching the record). The count form is then opened with the number of words displayed in the count variable field.

[John Walsh]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

One thing I forgot to mention is that in the enclosed code the path to the Memo_count table needs to be changed to your path or use the a_current_path system variable instead. (i.e. a_current_path+"memo_count.dbf")

[Willard]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Jophn has done wonders with this, but how about copy and paste to an text file, then read each line and use the w_count(text) for each line and add them all up, I think this can be very fast and done behind all the scenes. I am assuming you have tried to read the parentform:memo.text already WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I just tried it and this is what I get----->
(this is on a regular memo field only will not work on RTF fields)
dim f as p
dim text as c
dim num as n
f=parentform.this
text=f:memo.text 'where memo is the name of the field on the form look under 'properties for the name
num=w_count(text)

if it is a rtf field let me know and I will give you the code for that Jack

[John Walsh]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Dear Jack,

I thought of this method but isn't the character variable limited to 255 bytes? If so, it could not count the words in a large memo field.

[John Walsh]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Dear Jack,

I tried your suggestion. Although I couldn't get it to work with your exact syntax, I changed the compound variable to memo.value (vs. memo.text) and it works fine. You taught me something new as I had always assumed that the variable fields are limited in the same way as the defined field types; but apparrently not. Thanks for your imput.

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

A5 has a function W_Count which seems to operate OK on regular memo fields. I used it once a long while ago and don't recall what, if any, are the limitations. However, I did a quick paste from a Word document into a test field (note) on a test table called memotest.

In the interactive window

t=table.open("memotest")
t.fetch_first()
words=alltrim(t.note)
wordnum=w_count(words)
?wordnum
= 644.000000

which is correct.

Finian

[drgarytraub]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Hi Finian:

Based on your idea, I put the following code in a button:

dim words as c
dim wordnum as n
words=alltrim(notes.value)
wordnum=w_count(words)
ui_msg_box(str(wordnum),"")

where notes is the name of the memo field on a for.

The result is displayed in a fraction of a second even for a memo conatining over 6,000 words - amazing!!

Gary Traub

[Bob Whitaker]

RE: Counting Words in memo fields

Thanks to all as usual for your contributions. This forum and its participants help to make Alpha the product it is.

Bob Whitaker