Serial number control by year

[hasru]

i have thousands of previous data to be submitt in the new file. i select one group contain 5 persons from diferent district to finish the task. So i need help how to use script or calculation to make sure the serial numbers entered are control by year.

for example

person at district A entering data for the year 1991 and person at district B are entering data for the year 1997. the serial nombor must be split and squence year.

Hopefully understand my poor langguage.

[LaRetta]

Hi hasru,

Your language is fine.

Your serial numbers (unique IDs) should be meaningless. Your attempts to control them and add meaning presents the exact problems you now face. And there are more problems unforseen to you as yet. I suggest you just have a field for the year if need be.

LaRetta :wink2:

[hasru]

thanks alot, is it means i cant solve my problem. if there are any solution pls give me in detail.

thanks

[LaRetta]

I can't quite picture what you are doing. Tell me where I'm wrong:

You have 5 people (in 5 different locations) entering student information. You have given them each a year of student records to enter. You want the serial numbers (when they are all done entering) to be in sequence by year also? Will you then be pulling (importing) all of this data into one file?

The order of the records (and thus the final serial assigned) doesn't really matter. But you could import each group in order (first 1991 then 1992 etc from each person). And your final file could assign the serial at that time.

When you say serials must be split and sequenced by year ... is there a District requirement about these serial numbers? I just don't feel clear enough on what you're doing to give good suggestions. Can you provide more information for us? I am confident we can help you through it.

LaRetta :wink2:

[comment]

it means i cant solve my problem

I think it means there is no problem to solve here. A record's serial number should be meaningless. If you need information about the record, such as the year, put it in another field.

[hasru]

i try to describe a task in detail.

the big numbers of student which registered between 1991 to 2005. then every student should have their own new static registration number. For example the figure just like this.

Year 1991 2500 students

year 1992 2700 seudents

and so on.....

what i need to do is, when old data year 1991 been submit by person in location A (let say # 100)and then person at location B also submitt the 1991's record. so this serial number should appear 101. what i'm trying to say is, the key word is 'year' when they submitt the record then the system will find what was the last serial number of that year because that number plus registration year becomes the new registartion for every student.

it is easy when i used summary in this field and i used find mode to know the numbers of students which registered on that year. [color:red](But i cant do this)

( in this case every 'year' should have the same serial number but with different 'year')

example

year 1991

serial number 1 - 1500

year 1992

serial number 1 - 1500

year 1993

serial number : 1 - 1500

i try to find a calcullation just like below

if year='1991', go to last record then go to next serial number.

thanks for helping

[Halvo]

Why not break down you problem into steps that can then be put into a script to do your task? That is...

1. When your Data Entry (DE) person first logs into the database, they have to key in a year (the year of the data they are entering). This would then be stored in a global field or global variable.

2. Put a "New Record" button on the data entry form for each layout that your minions will be using to enter a new record.

3. Attach a script to the "new record" button that will firstly perform a find on the year that your DE person is keying in (you know, the one stored in your global field), then go to the last record, then get the value of your last serial number for that year and either copy it or put it into another temporary field.

4. Have the script then do a "find all" or show all records, then do a New Record and paste the value of the year & the copied last serial number + 1.

It sounds complicated, but if you let filemaker do it through a script, then you should get the results that you are looking for without your minions having to do any more than press the "new record" button for a new record to be displayed with a year based serial number in it for them.

Think outside of the square you live in, and think of ways to break down your problems into steps that Filemaker can do for you one at a time and then combine to give you the result you are looking for. Or are you wanting a quick solution without having to put any effort into it yourself?

[LaRetta]

year 1991

serial number 1 - 1500

year 1992

serial number : 1 - 1500

This defeats the whole purpose of serials. Because they will no longer be unique.

If you have a specific school district requirement on creation or control of these serials, then don't use them to establish your relationships. They will not support a relational structure. Even including the year is bad idea. What if you find the year was mistyped and must be changed? If you count on this year and it's mixed with your serial, it will again bite you.

My question is ... WHY are you handling your serials this way? I would really like to assist. But I won't help someone hang themselves, either.

LaRetta

[hasru]

Think outside of the square you live in, and think of ways to break down your problems into steps that Filemaker can do for you one at a time and then combine to give you the result you are looking for. Or are you wanting a quick solution without having to put any effort into it yourself?

Thanks for the idea and yours advise too. i try not to post threads and i sugguest the forum shall be closed...