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Max Value

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    Max Value

    Hello,

    I'd like to set a calculate field that retrieves the largest value of all records stored in one particular field.

    DBMAX is close, but it searches for records that match a key value and returns the highest value of a return_field.

    I'd like to return the greatest or highest value of a field from all records.

    Is this possible?

    Thank you,
    Mike
    Thank you,
    Mike Konoff

    #2
    RE: Max Value

    Looks like tablemax() will do it, provided you use a filter of .t.

    -- tom

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Max Value

      Thanks Tom...I'll check it out.

      Mike
      Thank you,
      Mike Konoff

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Max Value

        Tom,

        It works. Thanks for your help.

        Mike
        Thank you,
        Mike Konoff

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Max Value

          Other than setting a field to AutoIncement, this seems like a slick little tool to make a home made autoincrement such as tablemax()+1.

          Anybody know any reason why this might not be a good way to go?

          Mike
          Thank you,
          Mike Konoff

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Max Value

            When you do a table function, Alpha probably has to do a fetch on all records and may not necessarily take advantage of indexes. Let's say you have an index tag that is a a relative record number. Doing a lookupc("L" and adding one to the retrieved number seems like a much better way of doing it. Even this will have problems when simultaneous users are on the system, which is why I always use a function that retrievss the last number from a special table.

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Max Value

              John,

              It sounds to me that you do autoincrementing with something other than A5's "autoincrement" field rule. True?

              For some reason, and I don't recall why, it seems to me that A5's built in autoincrement routine is not as foolproof as A4's. Is this what you find?

              Thank you,
              Mike
              Thank you,
              Mike Konoff

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Max Value

                Mike,

                Like John and others, I store the last record value in a field in a dummy table and use this to increment to the next available record ID. If I need to verify that the number stored is correct, or to reset it due to an error, I use tablemax() to find the last value in the field.

                There are a couple reasons for using this method over autoincrement. I still use autoincrement if the value is not displayed or has not particular relavance other than a backgroud ID. But there are cases where autoincrement does quite work the way I would like.

                1. One case can be if the ID is a combination of two values. One user wanted the year as the first four digits of an ID combined with an incremented numeric value added (20010980, 20010981, 20020001, 20020002, etc) This required some calculation of the ID which isn't possible with autoincrement.

                2. Another case occurs where you don't want gaps in the ID, such as in invoice numbers. If the number is autoincremented and the record is deleted, that number won't be used again. There are a number of stategies to combat this one using the OnDeleteRecord event.

                3. If you have multiple users on a network, you may want to fix the ID number at some point in the record entry for some other activity or calculation. If two people are entering records in the table at the same time, the autoincrement value is assigned at save, so whoever saves first gets that number. Using your own increment allows you to open the dummy table, either at the CanSaveRecord event or the OnEnterRecord event in field rules, get the last record used, increment that, save the new value back to the dummy. Now you have your number and it won't change and the next user will get a new, fixed, incremented number when they hit that event.

                Jerry

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