Stumped trying to devise method of counting

[Pete Johnson]

I am trying to make requested changes for a client to a very primitive database that I didn't design. The client is a carpet cleaning business and uses the database for point-of-sale and accounting and generating reports. It is unbelievably crude.

One of the requested changes is to come up with the total number of "days" worked in a given period of time. "Days" is defined as any day in which ANY work was done for any customer. So, if no jobs at all were performed on Monday, then that would equal ZERO days. If 14 jobs were performed on Tuesday, that would equal ONE day. And, if 1 job was performed on Wednesday, that also would equal ONE day. So, the goal is to come up with a total of the number of actual days that jobs were performed. In this example, the number would be 2.

My FileMaker experience is very rusty to begin with, and I suspect that the way this database was constructed will make it very difficult to shoehorn this type of calculation into. I'm completely stumped trying to think of what sort of mechanism would be able to come up with this total.

HELP!!!

Thanks,

Pete Johnson

[email protected]

[Lee Smith]

Hi Pete,

I'm wondering what a "Job" is. What is actually entered when a job is performed. How do you know if it is 1, 2 or 14 jobs? Or, was that a typo and the number like this entered?

0 = 0

1 = 1

2 = 2

.

.

.

14 = 14

Lee

[LaRetta]

Hi Pete,

Create a Value List based upon the date field using values from field and all values. Create a calculation (number, unstored) with:

PatternCount ( ValueListItems ( Status ( CurrentFileName ), "DateVLname" ), "