Anyone know how to overcome 15 digit limitation

[jwallace]

Just wondering if anyone knew a workaround or plug in that allowed the use of more than the first 15 digits in calculations. I was caught off guard by this. 15 digits is a lot. Generally it will work, but not using the rest of the data to process some calcs results in different answers. This is not acceptable when digits 16, 17, 18, ... are very important.

Thank you

JW

[Vaughan]

What limit is this? Text, number, date or time fields?

I know there is a 255 or 156 character limit for some things like numbers...

[fishma]

I have had the same problem in the past. My work around is to use multiple fields. I parse up the number into chunks of 15 digits. The chunked up data goes into multiple fields (num1, num2, num3,... etc). This technique works excellent for find and or sort actions. Hope this helps...

Fishma!

[BobWeaver]

Number fields will hold up to 255 characters, but calculations on these fields will only use 15 digits max. There are a few tricks for doing extended math based on using multiple fields. It's not too bad for addition/subtraction, but multiplication/division can get ugly. What specifically are you trying to do--calculate Bill Gates income?

[Uncle Pauly]

Are there 255 character limitations on "Text Values" as well? I am currently trying to assist someone with a project that needs to put in a lot of textual informaion in each value, for many different values in a field. Is this possible to do? How can I help them get around any limitations in the charecters of a value?

P.S. - Very new to this software. Just learning how this cool ap works!!!

Thanks

Paul Matlack

[email protected]

[BobWeaver]

Text fields can have 64,000 characters.

[Uncle Pauly]

That is what I thought, however I am trying to set up (pardon me if I am not getting terminology correct) several different values in a pop-up list. I can define the value lists just fine by typing in all the text I need (over 255). Then when I attempt to view the field in "browse" and I click on it and chose a specific value, only 255 characters of that value will be displayed. The remaining text for that value does not pop up. I can continue typing it in, but that defeats my purpose of having it pretyped and just choosing the paragraph I want displayed in the field.

Sorry if this is unclear. Let me know and I will attempt to expalin better if need be. Thank you so much for the help though!!!

[jwallace]

Well, this discussion has changed a bit since I posed my question, but I am still disappointed that the 15 digit limit to calculations exists. Filemaker should consider allowing designers a choice so that the limitation could be extended in those circumstances (limited though they may be) that require calculations based on more than the first 15 digits the calculation results are true instead of nearly so.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

[Uncle Pauly]

Sorry Mr. Wallace. I will start my own thread.

[BobWeaver]

JW:

I'm still curious. What sort of calculations do you need to do? There are some workarounds, but I hesitate to suggest something if I don't have an idea what you are trying to do. I have had situations where I had to do extended precision math (not in filemaker though), and created my own routines for doing it.

[JW]

I found somwhere that for a number field = up to 255 characters per field and only the first 120 are indexed, but for the number precision I stuck to the fact that all numbers are converted to 64 bit extended floating point with precision of 15 decimal positions.

So for one or two cases I have to split the field in two.

[jwallace]

It's a World Population vs US National Debt comparison and a whole bunch of other things. Doing it for a teacher of Geography that wants to be able to plug in random data and spit out current trivia based on lots and lots of different values. Obviously, my main problem is trying to fit the National debt thing in as it is currently 15 digits in length (Filemakers top end)

Anyway. That's why I have become concerned.

[BobWeaver]

Remember, there is a difference between maximum precision and maximum magnitude.

The maximum magnitude that filemaker can handle is around 10^100 which is more than the number of atoms in the universe.

15 digits is the maximum precision. I don't know of too many applications other than accounting that need more than about 6 digit accuracy.

In other words it's all a matter of scale.

[This message has been edited by BobWeaver (edited January 11, 2001).]

[LiveOak]

I'm with Bob, I don't think we even KNOW the national debt to 15 decimal places! It... is...changing...even...as...we...speak! How about entering all numbers as millions? (The population of Fallbrook is 0.025 million!).

-bd