Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

    Does anyone have any performance metrics comparing a field with a "calculated" field rule type vs. defining a global calculated field on the "Restructure Table" screen?

    I have experimented with calculated fields of the field rule type and found in some case that they can really slow down certain update operations. Are global calculated fields only evaluated as needed and therefore reduce overhead?

    Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience.

    #2
    RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

    Rhett,

    You've found out why most do not use the field rule for calculated fields as they only update when the record is saved vs immediate update when a calculated field is created on the form, browse or report.

    The down side is that you must create the calculated field for each form, browse or report. I admint a calculated field created with the field rule is a bit of a time saver but onec the calculated field is created, you could copy it to the other forms or reports.

    kenn
    TYVM :) kenn

    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

      Rhett,

      These are really apples and oranges so comparing their speed is a bit beside the point.

      The problem is they both have the same name: calculated.

      A calculated field rule is a way of inserting a value into an actual field. You add the field to the table definition as you would any other and then define the calculation to fill it. This is not a calculated field, but a field filled by a calc field rule

      A "calculated field" is not a real field in the table. It is a calculation available to be used in reports, fields, etc but can't be searched for as it does not exist--hasn't been calculated--until the record is fetched.

      You choose the best device for the purpose at hand. I don't think a speed comparison is meaningful.

      I wonder if others agree.

      Bill
      Bill Hanigsberg

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

        My experience (but not real knowledge), is that if the calculated field in field rules use a lookup function then this slows lots of operations. If it is a global calculated field in the structure I think it calculates as and when needed so does not slow things down.

        On another related issue, I am always amazed how efficiently Alpha handles calculations espcially when basing calculated field rules on other calculated fields but have recently discovered an anomoly. A calculated field re evaluates when one of the values in the calculation changes and when the record is saved. But this does not always occur. If the fields are not in a logical hierachy order in the table structure. For example FieldA =FieldB+FieldC and the value in FieldB or FieldC changes, FieldC will not reflect the change unless it is lower down the table structure even when a new record is saved. (It will refresh using a field rule evaluation but this is not always practical)

        This is not based on any real knowlege, just experience.

        Michael

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

          Michael,

          Say what?

          I don't follow. FieldC would change when FieldC changes, would it not? Why would FieldC change if FieldB changes?

          -- tom

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

            Michael,

            I'm afraid I must disagree. Cannot see any difference in the performance of a table level calculated field based on it's position in the table.

            Here's an example to prove the point.

            -- tom

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

              The domino effect???

              I dunno, it's hot today!!

              kenn
              TYVM :) kenn

              Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                Tom,

                I will try to set up an example to prove my point, in the meantime this is the basis.

                This is the calc field rule for Month_fee:
                ROUND((WEEK_FEE*NO_WEEKS),2)-BHDAY_CALC+PART_MONTH-TERM_DED-ROUND(((WEEK_FEE*NO_WEEKS)-BHDAY_CALC+PART_MONTH-TERM_DED)*SIB_PC/100,2)-GRANT_DED

                I also have another field Run_bal:

                IF(MONTH_END

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                  Michael,

                  I will look forward to seeing your example.

                  Your initial message referred to a simple calc field. Your last post showed quite a bit of complexity, including, unless I am missing something altogether, calc fields based on calc fields, which themselves are based on calc fields.
                  I'm not certain how many levels of 'nested' calculations can be included.

                  -- tom

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                    IF(MONTH_END"TODAY,MONTH_FEE,0)
                    There can be only one.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                      Stan,

                      IF(MONTH_END

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                        Tom or anyone interested,

                        Attached is a file proving my point about table structure order of field used as nested field rule calculations.

                        Michael

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: Calculated Fields vs. Calculated Field Rule

                          Michael,

                          This msg board "eats" backslashes and "less than" signs due to the nature of HTML.

                          To get a "less than" sign to show up on the board, it must be replaced by this group of characters: <

                          To get a backslash to show use this: \

                          Or, you can do as many others do and substitute either a forward slash or a pipe symbol (vertical bar: |) for the backslash.

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X