how can I work with dates in calcs?

[innodes]

I need to build in a feature to track a process flow based on dates. Ie, the ship date is X, lead time for tooling is Y, the production time is Z, so from these create a back-off schedule. That is the gist of it, but with about 15 to 20 more steps. How can I work with dates in calcs? Adding days, weeks, etc. all based on the end date (ship date).

thanks

[Sara Severson]

Hi innodes,

Dates in FileMaker are stored as the number of days from 1/1/0001, so if you keep that in mind you can use them in calcs just fine. i.e. you can subtract one date field from another date field, and the result will be the difference in number of days (if you return the result as a number).

If your work flow is that something occurs 15 days after a date of origin, then 30 days, etc., just calculate those dates by:

[origin date field] + 15 [return result as date]. You'll end up with the date 15 days after your origin date.

Is that helpful, or do you have something more complex in mind?

Edited July 21, 2009 by Guest

[innodes]

Sara,

Thanks and yes that is helpful. I need to start playing with it to see where it takes me. I just wanted to have somewhere to start from. This is a big help.

thanks again,

[Sara Severson]

Great, have fun!

[Lee Smith]

hi innodes,

I need to build in a feature to track a process flow based on dates. Ie, the ship date is X, lead time for tooling is Y, the production time is Z, so from these create a back-off schedule.

How can I work with dates in calcs? Adding days, weeks, etc. all based on the end date (ship date).

Wouldn't you base this on the Start Date to arrive at the Ship Date?

In other words, if you start a project today, and it takes 10 days for each step, then the answer would be the total of the steps from TODAY.

However, if you base your timeline on the Ship Date, and each step takes 10 days, and you have a Ship Date in the future of 20 days, you will miss your deline.

my 2¢ worth.

Lee

[innodes]

Lee,

What you said is accurate and what I will be doing. I just needed to know how to work "dates", "days" or "weeks" into calculations. There will be varying dates dependant upon the processes, materials, tooling, etc. I will need to script these all in so that the user can input these variables, but they will all drive against the ship date (as you mentioned).

thanks, any and all suggestions are very welcome,

idee

[Lee Smith]

There are many discussion about working with dates here, also there are several demo files at databasepros.com.

I would start with this file, as it seems to address your question well.

Link

Lee