Dimensions & Measurement conversion

[Ocean West]

Have a simple database where the solution could be in English mode or Metric mode

Have a few fields height, width, length, depth, weight

If the solution is in "English Mode" then all data entered is in "inches" for dimensions and "pounds" for weight. If we switch to Metric then the data should reflect "cm" or "kg"

trying to do this with as few as fields as necessary - was thinking of one field for each "mode" and using auto enter on each field. And when the solution changes mode ( depending on where it's deployed ) was going to update the preference field and then run a script to re-evaluate said fields.

Thoughts or existing examples?

Thanks Stephen

[T-Square]

Well, to keep the field count down, I'd decide on how to store the data (English or metric) and always store it that way. Then, an entry mode toggle would be used to convert entries as they are submitted, if necessary. Display values can also convert, if necessary.

[Ocean West]

in my situation I have abstracted it one level further were there actually isn't a Field for any of the dimensions or weight but rather a portal to an attributes table there is a record for each field/value attribute. So part of my lookup process was when it adds the attributes to the portal have another field pre populated with a formula that gets evaluated on data entry of the value - where if the "mode" is english then the metric would be filled computed and vice versa.

[Colin Keefe]

Hi Steve,

Out of curiosity, is the data being used computationally at all, e.g. will volumes be calculated, or weights added, etc?

Can a solution have mixed measurement types, or is it an either/or: all English or all Metric?

[Ocean West]

No these are just attributes describing an object so they are not being used in any computations, once setup the system will be deployed to a location where they by preference choose how to view & enter data (english or metric) I do believe that the conversions are necessary so that reports can be printed and submitted to others with the equivalents represented in the either format as requested.

[Ocean West]

what i may end up doing is based on the current MODE, target the appropriate invisible tab panel for data entry on that panel would be the corresponding field for that mode (english/metric) when the user enters the data have the other field autoenter update based on the value entered in its counterpart evaluating based on the context of an formulae in another field. Should it be converting a dimension or weight, based on context of the record label field.