Limit to text in calculation fieldAt th

[thompm65]

Hello,

I am trying to make a calculation field that uses "if" logical functions to result in a text strings, but there seems to be a limit to the amount of letters you can have in a text string. Is there a way around this?

Here's the calculation I would like to create:

If(Membership Category = "$25 Contributing", "The Interpreter newsletter and program and book discounts.", If(Membership Category = "$50 Supporting", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts and a second program participant discount.", If(Membership Category="$100 Sustaining", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts, a second program participant discount, plus an invitation-only behind the scenes tour of Sugarloaf Cove.", If(Membership Category = "$250 Sponsor", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts, a second program participant discount, an invitation-only behind the scenes tour of Sugarloaf Cove and a copy of the year's best North Shore interpretive book.", "other" )) ))

At this point the calculation still works, but if I add another "if" with and even longer text string, I get a notice saying the text is too long within the "".

I would like to use this as a merge field in a Word document.

Any ideas? Am I even on the right track?

I only have FM 6.

Thanks, MT

[Raybaudi]

Hi

Use the Case function, something like:

Case(

Membership category = "$25 Contributing", "The Interpreter newsletter and program and book discounts.",

Membership category = "$50 Supporting", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts and a second program participant discount.",

Membership category="$100 Sustaining", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts, a second program participant discount, plus an invitation-only behind the scenes tour of Sugarloaf Cove.",

Membership category = "$250 Sponsor", "The Interpreter newsletter, program and book discounts, a second program participant discount, an invitation-only behind the scenes tour of Sugarloaf Cove and a copy of the year's best North Shore interpretive book.",

"other"

)

BTW: if a string in a calc is longer than 255 chars, use fields. So the above calc becomes:

( A,B,C and D are global fields )

Case(

Membership category = "$25 Contributing", A ,

Membership category = "$50 Supporting" , B ,

Membership category = "$100 Sustaining" , C ,

Membership category = "$250 Sponsor" , D ,

"other"

)

[comment]

I believe a better solution would be to add a file of MembershipCategories, with fields for Category, Fee and Bonus(?). Define a relationship from your current file to MembershipCategories based on Category, and lookup the Fee and the Bonus from the related record.

This way you can change the fees and the incentives without changing your calculation, and more importantly, without messing up your history.

[thompm65]

Thanks.

I will try that.

MT