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Calc field to create an acronym

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    Calc field to create an acronym

    I need a formula to create an acronym based on another field's value, to be used as a code. I'll put the formula in the Default Value of the acronym field's field rules. Here's the example: the basis field is Company, the code field is Co_code, character, length 3. Company might contain Aristocratic Publishing, Earthquake Casualty Insurance, Economy Construction, Inc. - etc. I want the default value for Co_code to give (up to) the 1st 3 initials. For the above examples, the default code result would be:
    AP
    ECI
    ECI
    So you can see why I want this as only the Default value; user must be able to modify the code, ... maybe he'd change Example 3 to EC2, for instance. Also, he might want to change the code for a company name of only one word, or more than 3 words.
    Can anyone help with the syntax for this formula?

    Thanks in advance,
    Randi
    P.S. Happy Easter!

    #2
    RE: Calc field to create an acronym

    This should work:
    left(word(company,1),1)+left(word(company,2),1)+left(word(company,3),1)

    For "Earthquake Casualty Insurance", result would be: "ECI"

    Jake

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      #3
      RE: Calc field to create an acronym

      Just a thought. What happens if there are only 2 words in the company name? I've not used this construction, just trying to learn.
      There can be only one.

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Calc field to create an acronym

        Tried that as well Stan, it does not produce any errors, gives you "AP" for "Aristocratic Publishing".

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Calc field to create an acronym

          Wow, thanks, Jake! Not only a perfect formula, but testing the odd cases as well! Plus, I learned a new word today: a function named WORD. The only "Word" in Alpha I knew before was the char$ formatting choice that ucases all the initial chars of the words w/in a string (which I use a lot).

          I use my manual often, but the Catch-22 is that you don't know a function is available if you can't guess what Alpha has named what you need to do, or if the function is there at all. You don't learn all the neat tricks until you come upon a case where you need to find one.

          Thanks again,
          and hope the Easter Bunny was good to you.
          -Randi

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            #6
            RE: Calc field to create an acronym

            Randi,

            What happens if, although the comapny name is different, the initials are the same? Perhaps I missed something in the script.

            kenn
            TYVM :) kenn

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

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Calc field to create an acronym

              Ken,

              Check out the beginning of the thread where Randi explains that she wants the expression to create a *default* value which a user can modify in exactly the situation you describe. It is true that it would possible to create an expression which would test for uniqueness but user intervention is ot such a terrible thing in such cases.

              Bill
              Bill Hanigsberg

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Calc field to create an acronym

                Hi, Ken,

                William is right. However, it was my own error in my Subject Line for this topic that misled you. I should have titled it "Expression to calculate an acronym." I caught the error only after I'd posted the question -- too late. I started to "reply to myself" to point this out, but decided that the body of the msg would do that for me. Sorry about the confusion!

                BTW, here's an update for everyone. I decided that I didn't like the one-char acronyms for the single-word companies; it looked just a little to brief, and made for too many cases requiring user intervention. So I used W_COUNT (which I found in the manual after learning about WORD) along with IF & LEFT, and made all one-word companies come out with the uppercase of the first 3 letters as their acronyms; e.g., Infinity comes out as INF instead of I. That will save them a little trouble, too, esp since there aren't supposed to be a really large number of companies.

                I may later also add something to prevent dupe codes. Would just indexing the field to Unique Only do that?

                Thanks again,
                Randi

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Calc field to create an acronym

                  "Would just indexing the field to Unique Only do that?"

                  That wouldn't do it for you. It would (I believe) only insure that the index would refer only to the first instance of the string with subsequent instances not being indexed.

                  What you need to do is index the field containing the acronym and create a validation rule in field rules using the key_unique() function. This will prevent a record with a duplicate acronym from being saved.

                  Bill
                  Bill Hanigsberg

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