Is it possible to create a single field that accepts user input or autoenters calculation?

[crayfish]

I am working on a database where I need to do sorts by age. For some of the records, I have the child's date of birth and for some I only have their current age. (Obviously, age based on date of birth is more useful since it is dynamic.)

Right now I have three fields:

1. Age Field (User can enter in the age)

2. Date of Birth

3. Age Calculation (Auto enters age based on birthday. If Birthday field is empty then it autoenters age based on "Age Field." If both age field and date of birth contain a value, the date of birth takes priority.

[i've attached a simple example]

In sum, I am wondering if its possible to have a single age field that will allow the user to input a value. If the user leaves the age field blank, but enters the date of birth, then the age field performs a calculation to determine the correct age. In other words can a field exist as either a calculation or a user-definable value?

Obviously, the easiest solution would be to have the date of birth for every record; unfortunately, that isn't practical.

I realize I could run a script to check whether the date of birth field is filled and then calculate and insert the age into a single age field. However, I'd rather find a solution that doesn't use scripts and operates solely on the field definition level.

Thanks for the help.

age_and_birthday.fp7.zip

Edited July 4, 2006 by Guest

[Søren Dyhr]

Please tell me if this is getting your boots too filled:

http://edoshin.skeletonkey.com/2006/06/linked_fields.html#more

--sd

[Genx]

I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves soren ... something more simple will do.

We use an auto-enter calculation in one of two ways:

1) We specify it as auto enter and untick the "do not evaluate if field contains something" (paraphrase) option under auto enter.

We specify the calculation to be:

If(not IsValid(DOB) or IsEmpty(DOB) ; AgeField ; YourAgeCalcThatUsesDOBAndPerhapsGetCurrentDateGoesHere)

- note that the IsEmpty() function maybe redundant here

2) We specify it as auto enter and don't untick the "do not evaluate if field contains something" option under auto enter.

Then we simply enter YourAgeCalcThatUsesDOBAndPerhapsGetCurrentDateGoesHere

[crayfish]

Great! I figured it out. Thanks

[comment]

I am afraid there's a problem here that cannot be solved by Søren's and Genx's suggestions: the calculation of age from BirthDate (when BirthDate is known) needs to be UNSTORED. This, I think, would rule out any auto-entered calculation, since such calculation, once entered, will be 'frozen in time'.

[Genx]

Lol, i forgot that Age actually changes comment.