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Advice on validating data in a Table

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    Advice on validating data in a Table

    I have what is a rather simple problem that Action Scripting seems to give no answers and for a novice coding is rather daunting.

    I have a table "T_inputs" that contains quote number "ID_Quote" and customer number "ID_Customer. I have a separate table "T_Customers" that contains customer number "ID_Customer1" and other data about the customer. What I want to do is check that all the quotes have valid customer numbers by comparing the customer numbers in the quote table with those in the customer table.

    What methods would you recommend I use. Are there any efficient ways to do this.

    thanks
    Paul

    #2
    Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

    Originally posted by Paul Main View Post
    I have what is a rather simple problem that Action Scripting seems to give no answers and for a novice coding is rather daunting.

    I have a table "T_inputs" that contains quote number "ID_Quote" and customer number "ID_Customer. I have a separate table "T_Customers" that contains customer number "ID_Customer1" and other data about the customer. What I want to do is check that all the quotes have valid customer numbers by comparing the customer numbers in the quote table with those in the customer table.

    What methods would you recommend I use. Are there any efficient ways to do this.

    thanks
    Paul

    The easiest way I can think of is to create a set with t_inputs as the parent and t_customers as the child, linked on the id fields one to one. Now open the set and sort ascending on one of the child table fields. This will put the "empty" child records at the top, which should be the ones that did not have matches in the parent table.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

      As so often happens the first reply exposses what was thought and not said. Appologies.

      The situation is that the quote table might have an invalid customer number in it. Therefore, when producing a quote and getting information passed in from the customer table it fails. Hence the need to periodically check the validity of the customer numbers in the quote record.

      I did think of stepping through the quotes and lookup each customer number but I could not figure out the code to do this.

      Paul

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

        Originally posted by Paul Main View Post
        As so often happens the first reply exposses what was thought and not said. Appologies.

        The situation is that the quote table might have an invalid customer number in it. Therefore, when producing a quote and getting information passed in from the customer table it fails. Hence the need to periodically check the validity of the customer numbers in the quote record.

        I did think of stepping through the quotes and lookup each customer number but I could not figure out the code to do this.

        Paul
        Not sure why what I suggested fails. How about adding a field to the quote table. Post to the new field from the customer table, any value that the field will hold, based on id fields. This will indicate what records in the quote table do and don't have matching customer table records.

        Blank the new field before each run with an update operation.
        There can be only one.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

          Stan, All I want to do is run a check routine that compares the customer numbers in the quote table with the master customer table to see if it is valid. The output would be a list of quotes with invalid customer numbers, which by definition would be that it does not exist in the customer master table.

          The routine I thought of would be

          Set index t_quote table to quote number ascending
          Set index t_customer table to customer number ascending
          Goto first record t_quote table
          do while .t. if quote number exist
          find t_quote.customerno in t_customer.customer table
          if .not. t_quote.customer = t_customer.customer
          print quote number
          endif
          goto next quote record

          Am I making sense?

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

            Originally posted by Paul Main View Post
            Stan, All I want to do is run a check routine that compares the customer numbers in the quote table with the master customer table to see if it is valid. The output would be a list of quotes with invalid customer numbers, which by definition would be that it does not exist in the customer master table.

            The routine I thought of would be

            Set index t_quote table to quote number ascending
            Set index t_customer table to customer number ascending
            Goto first record t_quote table
            do while .t. if quote number exist
            find t_quote.customerno in t_customer.customer table
            if .not. t_quote.customer = t_customer.customer
            print quote number
            endif
            goto next quote record

            Am I making sense?
            You're making perfect sense. I just disagree with the method you want to use to get the list. If you used my last suggestion, you could export (excel or ascii) just the quote numbers based on isblank("addedfield").

            If' you'd rather code it in xbasic, go ahead. No hard feelings. I know how fast the post, update, and export operations run for something this simple. I don't know how fast a script would run that fetched through all the customers for each quote.


            I'm accustomed to multi-million record tables so I am probably biased towards certain solutions.
            There can be only one.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

              Stan, thanks. I have just tried what you suggested and I can see how to use it. It also gives me the opportunity to make corrections.

              My thought pattern was to have a batch job to check the data and list the errors. Your way will work for small sets of mismatches which hopefully will only be rarely needed.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Advice on validating data in a Table

                Originally posted by Paul Main View Post
                Stan, thanks. I have just tried what you suggested and I can see how to use it. It also gives me the opportunity to make corrections.

                My thought pattern was to have a batch job to check the data and list the errors. Your way will work for small sets of mismatches which hopefully will only be rarely needed.
                Great. Now consider changing the customer id field in your quote table to a lookup to the customer table. It could fill in the customer id and name. No possibility of mismatches.
                There can be only one.

                Comment

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