I do not display the Status Bar. I provide record nav buttons and display the record number and found count. It seems I always need this for every table/file I work with. But I've always had to create a full calculation in every file in < 7. An attractive feature of a Custom Function is the ability to be used (and automatically associate) to every table. So I created a test Custom Function called getRecordDisplay:

"Record " & Get ( RecordNumber ) & " of" & Get ( FoundCount )

But I found I still needed to create a calculation in every table with getRecordDisplay It seems counter-productive (overkill?). However, it's easier to simply refer to this Custom Function in a calculation than creating the original calculation over and over in each table.

Question: Does it require more processor cycles (or resources) using Custom Function in this way? I want to understand how FM interprets it (from the bigger picture ). So my real question is ... Do Custom Functions (themselves) use resources and are they still valuable even if a regular calcuation will do the job?

Good grief. I hope I made sense.

LaRetta

FileMaker Version: Dev 7

Platform: Windows XP

LaRetta,

I suspect the custom functions are adding a level of indirection, so a calculation that uses one has to load that custom function, and therefore must be at least a little more expensive.

Whether or not this is a significant overhead probably depends on what you're doing - personally, I don't worry about it, I would rather have my solutions be easier to maintain.

If you're concerned, you should try scripting a loop that does 50,000 calculations each way, and see if the difference is noticeable. I'm sure this forum would be interested in seeing your results.