Hi all... I have a rookie questions I'm sure. I've been working for a while now teaching myself how to use this for the program I'm setting up at my job. I tried searching to figure out how to remedy this but haven't been able to find an answer in any previous posts. Anyhow... I'd like filemaker to calculate a date for me this is what I have...

Expiration = Date(Date Certified) + Year(Length of Certification)

I get the error "There are too few seperators in this function"

Thanks for your help in advance

Trisha

Hi Trisha,

Try this calculation with a result of Date:

Date(Month(Date Certified), Day( Date Certified), Year(Date Certified) + Length of Certification)

HTH

Lee

Well...

Now I don't get the error, but it isn't completing the caluclation either. Any ideas???

Thanks!

Trisha

What country are you in

I'm in Michigan

Make sure that the Date Certified is a Date Field, That the Length of Certification is a number field, and that the result of your calculation is "Date"

Lee

I suppose the Date field is text.

If you can't change it, use the TextToDate function TextToDate(Date Certified)...

or check that there is any dat in the fields..

Ack! I think I'm a lost cause

I'm not sure...but I probably have something royally screwed up along the way. I just want to be able to record the date of their certification, how many years its good for and the program to calculate when the certification expires. Would my problems have anything to do with the info. being in a portal? I probably have it all set up wrong...oh well.

Trish

God I love hearing these little hidden secrets and details...

Portal/Relationships

What the relationship like ?

So I guess that does make a difference. Woops!

I'm not totally sure about all the correct terminology here, but I'll try to explain as best I can.

The Relationship is ID = Identification number (which is just their social security number)

and the related files are the Personnel Records with Expiration File

In the expiration file the fields I have are:

Date Certified

Certification

Length of Certification

Expiration

ID

Date

Is that the info you were looking for? How bad is it? Should I just scrap the whole thing and stick to using paper files?!

Trish

Seems OK for me.

You have a relationship ID::ID which is unique, but are you looking to that related information.

In the define calc box, your calc should look like

Date(Month(::Relationship:Date Certified), Day(::Relationship:Date Certified), Year(::Relationship:Date Certified) + ::Relationship:Length of Certification)

You can get the related field by using the menu, just above the fields List in this Calc Box.

Now, I'm not sure, from what you said, if all fields would be related fields, or if only the Length would be.

Lee's calculation and advice about the type of file were correct. Look in Define Fields in the file with the dates and make sure Date Certified is a Date type field.

Expiration is the calculation, and must also have a Date result (little drop-down choice under the calculation dialog box).

Another possibility is that you've defined the fields in both files (unnecessarily), and are not using the related fields in the portal, but one of those in the "parent" file.

If the relationship is named "SS_ID" then the fields in the portal should all look like:

SS_ID::Date Certified

SS_ID::Length, etc.

SS_ID::Expiration

Make sure the fields are inside the portal row.

Don't give up. This will work (or we're all out of a job :-)

I've attached a little file to show it working.

Certifications.zip

If you want the calculated exp. date to appear in the portal, you have to define it in the related file.

Hi Fenton, thanks for my daily laugh

[color:"blue"] > Don't give up. This will work (or we're all out of a job

ROTFLMAO

Lee

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I finally got it by looking at the attachment and found the little error that I had. On to the next piece of the database... I'll try to keep it simple .