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
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

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

Average Function.

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Average Function.

    When using the average function, how do you distinguish between a blank
    and zero in a numeric field?

    If test scores are 70, 80, 70, blank (student was absent and excused from taking test). Average desired = 73.3 not 55. Help.
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Average Function.

    you can't do it that simply because there is no difference in a5 between a "null" numeric value and 0.

    on the assumption that no one who actually takes the test got a 0, you could create a calc field:

    iif(sore=0,0,1)

    this calc field will be 0 if the score was 0 or null, and 1 otherwise.

    your average is then the sum of the scores divided by the sum of this calc field.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Average Function.

      Sharon,

      Not to over dramatize, but I have lived with this problem.

      Selwyn suggest a way of working with the default behavior but I believe the variabilities of real life in the classroom are such that no default behavior will suit you. You will have to force the averaging to behave the way the individual case requires.

      There are several ways of doing this. I will suggest a couple.

      1. Twin fields: suppose your class has a midterm and a final exam and you are doing averages. For each exam have a character and a numeric field. You enter data into the character field and use field rules to calculate the numeric on the basis of the character field. Now you can put all kinds of stuff in the character field that a single numeric field wouldn't accept (e.g. ex[cused]) and your calc field rule can respond to these values which are usually termed "remarks". To keep them uniform and not confuse the calculation it is wise to allow remarks only from a drop down list which you control in field rules or form properties.

      2. Alternatively, you can have a logical field for each numeric and only include numerics where the logical field has the value of "true".


      Bill

      Bill Hanigsberg

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Average Function.

        I've been extremely busy lately, and haven't had the opportunity to even look at V5 (although I have downloaded the latest patches)and probably won't be looking at it for another couple of weeks.

        However, I had a problem last year with the average function, and received help in solving it on this forum. So busy or not, I feel obligated to say something.

        I finally solved the problem (with help) by creating a field called "Pres/Abs/Exc" (you can call it anything you like)in which I recorded whether a student was present, absent or excused on a particular exam. If the student was absent or excused, the field in which grades were recorded was skipped, and therefore remained blank. If the student was present, a grade was recorded (in fact, an entry was required).

        I then had Alpha find a total of each students grades, and calculate a COUNT for the number of times they were "present". Since grades were only recorded when a student was present, the average became the TOTAL OF THE STUDENTS SCORES divided by THE COUNT OF THE TIMES THEY WERE PRESENT.

        Hope this was helpful.

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Average Function.

          I have run into the same problem. My solution was to use a calculated field called counter which uses the isblank function. If the score field is blank the counter is 0 and if there is an entry the value is 1. I total the score fields and total the counter fieds and then divide the score total by the counter total. In a public high school that has a high transient rate, we often get kids in the middle of the term. Naturally, they can't be expected to take all the tests that they missed. We just pick them up where they are and try to factor transfer grades.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Average Function.

            You do know that you can set the display properties to sho whole numbers that automatically round up.

            Regards
            jim

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Average Function.

              I saw the light. Thanks for all your help and ideas.

              I am doing the twin fields, one character - Daily_Grade, one numeric - Numeric_Daily_Grade. The Numeric_Daily Grade has a calulating field rule of Val(Daily_Grade). Then I created another field, Count_Daily_Grade, that was numeric and stated if(Daily_Grade' ',1,0). I total all Numeric_Daily_Grade and divide by the Count_Daily_Grade and then grouped on student id because our instructors are entering these grades in their program areas with their students via network. Of course they will only see the average of 89.50%, or whatever, for their students that they have entered grades on, and we do have 0's. Works great, thanks. I love our networking on the forum. Now on to weighted grading. School's first day is very soon.

              Comment

              Previous template Next
              Working...
              X