Portal Parse Duplicates

[the_kid]

Howdy all,

I have a table that displays related information via a portal. I have a need to look at all the text values in the related records, add them all together and then parse out the duplicate values. Example:

Portal record

1 Driver

2 Loader

3 Loader

4 Supervisor

5 Loader

Parent record

Somehow add all the values from portal records into a field = Driver, Loader, Loader, Supervisor, Loader

Then parse out the duplicates so that the field in the parent record = Driver, Loader, Supervisor

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[bcooney]

Hmm. Would a related value list give you unique child records? It might. So a calc in the parent that uses ValueListItems ( ).

Otherwise, there's always List ( ). Or, if you're counting...individual count fields using FilterValues ( ).

[Søren Dyhr]

Read up upon Ugo's method, but what the point since every printout ought to be done in the most atomic of the tables, the itemlines table anyway?

Gttr would take your there and fm10's live summaries provides the rest of it! Sorting is the key to it...

--sd

[the_kid]

Thank you for the replies. I'm probably not explaining myself properly so I will ask specific questions.

1. How do you "sum" the values in related text fields? I know you can do it with numeric values using the sum() function. Is there a similar function for text values?

2. Once all the values are in one field, how do you parse out the duplicates?

Thanks again for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

Edited February 12, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

1. The List() function does that.

2. I don't understand what you mean by "parse out the duplicates".

[the_kid]

Thanks Comment. I don't see a List() function in my version. Is there a similar function for version 8?

Parse the duplicates means to get rid of the duplicate enteries once I "list" them all together. For example: The list contains driver, loader, loader, supervisor, loader. I would like to "parse" out the two duplicate "loaders" in the list. Does this make more sense?

Thanks.

[comment]

I don't see a List() function in my version.

Sorry, haven't noticed you're still in version 8 - the List() function was added in v. 8.5. You can use ValueListItems() instead, once you define a value list (as suggested earlier by Barbara). The value list needs to include related child values only, starting from the parent table. This method will also automatically remove any duplicate items.

[the_kid]

Thanks again. I think we are getting closer. I mocked up a quick and dirty of my problem (attached). The valuelistitems() function seems to list only the values in the value list. I'd like some function that "sums" all the entries in the portal together and removes the duplicates. I can do it for numbers but I haven't found a similar function for text values.

Sorry for being a pain in the neck. I really do appreciate all of your help.

the_kid_1.zip

[comment]

Try it this way:

temp2.fp7.zip

[the_kid]

Perfect! Thank you!

[Robert Moran]

How do I use list where I do want to keep the duplicates. List works perfectly but I need to show dupes as well. Any help on this would be terrific.

TIA

remoran