having problems defining a calculation

[poetviolinist]

Hi,

I'm working on a database for a Mac users group. Right now I'm using FMP 5.5, but I'll be getting FMP 10 soon. We will be giving away a prize in December, based on members who attend our monthly meetings. For example, if a current member attends the January and March meetings, then they'll have two tickets in December when we do the giveaway, if they are still a member at in December. Thus the question at hand is a field definition, which is a calculation.

The CASE function is working fine for the first two conditions, (they did attend the specific meeting, and their membership date is in 2009) but I can not get it to work for the third (that they renewed within the 90 day grace period after the date of the meeting). He's what I'm using to see if they get a Ticket for attending the January 7, 2009 meeting:

Case(Jan 7 2009 = "No", "No Ticket",

member until 2009 ≤ 01/01/2009, "No Ticket",

Renewal Date 2009 ≥ 04/07/2009, "No Ticket",

"Ticket")

If I use just the first two conditions, it works fine. The third condition always returns "No Ticket" regardless of any Renewal Date I put in, unless I take the date out entirely, which means it is not being considered in the field definition and I'm back to only using the first two conditions and it works fine again. Any advice is most appreciated.

Thanks!

Russ Conte

[poetviolinist]

Hi,

Problem is fixed, the correct definition is this:

Case(

Jan 7 2009 = "No", "No Ticket",

member until 2009 ≤ 01/01/2009, "No Ticket",

Renewal Date 2009 ≥ Date(4, 17, 2009), "No Ticket",

"Ticket")

The issues was putting in the "Date(4/17,2009)" instead of 4/17/2009. I don't honestly understand why it works, but it does, and that's good enough for me

Russ Conte

[comment]

It's because 4/17/2009 means "divide 4 by 17, then by 2009". And you have the same issue with 01/01/2009 - you just don't see it yet.

[poetviolinist]

Thanks, that is extremely helpful! I understand it now, thank you very much!

Best wishes,

Russ Conte