caluculation with CONTAINS, as opposed to EQUALS

[ruthcarlton]

Is there a way to write a caluclation where a field CONTAINS, as opposed to equals?

I would like to have a calculation based on data from check boxes where I have multiple possibilites and I can only get it to work with radio buttons where there is only one possibility.

[The Bridge]

Use the PatternCount(text, search string) function. This returns the number of instances of search string in text, which could be a field or a static text value inside quotation marks.

[ruthcarlton]

Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure it will help...

I have a daily sales DB, with sales of merch item.

Each merch item has a product description.

The product descriptions are in a value list from another file which will be edited often.

There is a daily fee which is calculated based on whether the product description is clothing or nonclothing.

Each day the defenition of clothing and nonclothing may change.

What I have been trying to do is allow the user to check which product description will be considered clothing that day and use those values in the fee calculation.

If(tour::clothing=productdescription, total, "0")

This calculation only works if there is one productdescripttion chosen, if there are 2 or more, it doesn't recognize any.

[The Bridge]

Is Tour::Clothing a global field that has your Product Description value list attached to it? If so, then perhaps this will work instead of your current calculation:

Case (PatternCount (Tour::Clothing, ProductDescription) > 0, total, 0)

Otherwise, I think I need more information on how your system is set up.

[ruthcarlton]

clothing is not a global field.

Maybe if I explain my work-around, it will make more sense. Currently I have individual check boxes for every item being sold to designate whether the item is clothing or non-clothing.

I would like to the user to be able to choose which product descriptions are clothing or non-clothing rather than having to choose the individual item.

I have been trying to do this with a field called "clothing" with check boxes for the product descriptions; Tshirts, hats, jackets, CDs (which are from another file and will be edited often), but as soon as I check more then 1 box, the calculation breaks.

[djgogi]

If I have understood the question than

if(isEmpty(Substitute

(Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(Substitute...//the number of substitutes has to be hardcoced //(tour::clothing,MiddleWords(productdescription,1,1),""),MiddleWords(productdescription,2,1),""),MiddleWords(productdescription,3,1),""),MiddleWords(productdescription,4,1),"")...//also this part has to be hardcoced : //,

"

[The Bridge]

Okay, I think I get it.

I think that you should apply your existing approach, i.e. indicating which individual items are clothing, to your product description file.

In the Product Description file, define a number field called Is_Clothing; this field will contain a 1 if Yes, 0 if No.

Then, you can build a relationship between Product Descriptions in your Daily Sales file to Product Descriptions in your Product Descriptions file and test to see if Is_Clothing is 1 or 0. If yes, then apply the fee. If no, then don't.

As far as user interface is concerned, you can create a portal showing all records from Product Description, listing the Product Description itself and Is_Clothing. Is_Clothing can be formatted with a checkbox drawing from a valuelist that has just one value: 1.

I hope this helps somewhat.