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Set Linking Field

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    #1

    Set Linking Field

    Have a master table listing patients, with each patient having a unique identifier, "identifier".

    Have a child table of doctors. Each doctor,naturally, can serve multiple patients, and each patient can have multiple doctors.

    Each doctor has a field which lists patients identifiers, separated by commas, "PtNumber", e.g. 11111, 22222, 33333, etc.

    I wish to link on the fields "identifier" and "ptNumber".

    The linking is not working. I know you can't have a calculated field for linking, but I'm stumped to figure out how to link. I've tried using containsi() function.

    Obviously, the report for the doctors prints fine as a stand-alone report, but the set based report will not print, when filtered for the patient indetifiers.

    Thanks in advance.
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Set Linking Field

    I don't think you're going to have much success with this approach. The main problem is that you're trying to keep multiple IDs in a single field, seperated by commas.

    What you really need is three tables.

    1. Doctors.dbf, with a Dr. ID, name, office address, etc. Probably everything that you have now with the exception of that single field listing multiple patients.

    2. Patients.dbf. I think you're probably in good shape here, too.

    3. Dr_Patient.dbf. This is the "missing link" that you need. It's most minimal form has two fields:
    - Dr_ID
    - Patient_ID

    Now you have everything you need for your sets.

    To get a list of doctors with all their patients, you make a set with Doctors as the parent. Add a one-to-many link to the Dr_patient.dbf, based on Dr_ID. Then add a one-to-one link from Dr_patient.dbf to Patient.dbf, based on Patient_ID.

    Reverse this set design setup for a list of patients and their many doctors.

    Hope this helps.

    - Steve
    -Steve
    sigpic

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      #3
      RE: Set Linking Field

      Steve, thanks for your help. I'll give it a try. As a temp workaround, I took the source doctor's table, and created a new table, each time I run the report, sorting out the patient's names, using containsi() function.

      It works okay, but, does slow the report down. After each report is printed, I'm deleting the records in the new table, so it's available for the next report.

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Set Linking Field

        Al:
        "Each doctor has a field which lists patients identifiers, separated by commas, "PtNumber", e.g. 11111, 22222, 33333, etc. "

        I guess that misses the whole essence of "relational database" and "one-to-many" links !! Instead of having multiple ptNumber's listed in one field separated by comas, what you should have is a set with the doctors table as the parent, linked to the patients table with PtNumber on a 1-to-many link.

        "I know you can't have a calculated field for linking,"
        Yes, you can, but it has no application here.

        What you need is minor modification to what you already have: the same 2 tables you have, doctors and patients, just add PtNumber as a field in the doctors table and use it for linking, and two sets each with a 1-to-many link:
        a-One set will have the doctors table as the parent
        b-The other set, a "reverse set" will have the patients table as the parent.


        That way, when you design a report based on the first set, it will show all the patients for each doctor and when you design one based on the second, it will show all the doctors for each patient.

        Gabe

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Set Linking Field

          Thank you for your reply.

          I did try what you suggested and it did not work.

          According to the A5 documentation, calculated fields cannot be used for linking - and apparently that's so, since it does not work.

          However, Expressions can be used for a composite linking field - different than a calculation.

          The calculation I was using, for the linking field, was containsi("PtNumber", "1111").

          I thought this still maintained the essence of a relational database.

          If I could make a subreport, without using a set, then that would solve the problem, I think.

          Thanks again.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Set Linking Field

            Al:
            I am not sure what do you mean by using a "calculated field" to link? where does that calculated field reside?

            As you correctly stated, you could use an expression to link.

            I repeat what Steve said earlier, that you are making it harder on yourself by accumlating these idntifiers in one field. By doing that, You are not taking advantage of the relational aspect of the program and the 1-to-many links. You would be much better off having a separate record for each patient.

            By the way, you are not able to use contains() for link, because contains returns a true/false result. As such, the expression has to yield a logical result both for the parent and the child. Even if you do that, you would have to hard-code the string in the expression which limits your set to one patient!!. If you wish to change the PtNumber refernce in the expression, you could use a variable instead of hard-coding the string and I assure you, you will be looking for more trouble.

            As you see, this is going in all unnecessary circles when all you need is a properly designed set and a reverse set, period.
            Gabe

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