Mass Add Of Records

[Robert Donham]

I would like to make a script to add a set amount of records specified by a field in the layout. The records would be the same as the ones that i entered on the layout. I am making a database for our plant business. So it would be like this, on the layout, I would enter all of the details of the plant, and in a box (quantity field) on the bottom i would enter the quantity of plants that i planted. So if i entered 72 in the quantity field, it would create 72 records. It would be a lot easier than entering over 1000 records manually! Thank You in advanced.

[efen]

Welcome to the forums.

It would be better if we knew what the intended purpose of your file and its multitude of duplicate records is.

I think that the structure of your file is wrong and needs improving - it is bad design to have 72 (or 1,000?) duplicate records.

[Søren Dyhr]

it is bad design to have 72 (or 1,000?) duplicate records.

Not nessersarily ...what if each plant potentially is part of different deployments and comes back once and a while for maintenance - in a sort of office vegetation rental.

If you keep quantity in the same join record would you easily run into a situation where you would say no to a new request, because different quantities are returned almost simultaneously. It's a great negotiating point to know future availability due to each return, here would each record holding a unique serial number make sense.

On the other hand could the sparsely described scenario cater for you interpretation as well ... I'll give you that.

--sd

[LaRetta]

Oh how funny ... I read this tread and agreed that one might want to create plantings and track each plant individually (we've done that with blueberries and also forests of trees), ie, pruning and fertilizing a planting batch and then tracking their growth. Tracking the results of such activities can improve our techniques and increase our output. And each plant's individual value changes depending upon age (date of planting batch), whether pruned then fertilized or fertilized and then pruned later and so forth. Also, plants are individuals and, even within same planting batch, one plant might end up being worth more than another for unknown reasons or disease/insect etc.

I worked for large corporation in Oregon and we data-modeled stands of timber. As we gathered data, we learned when to apply which activity, depending upon site index, thinning etc. And we would 'grow the trees' virtually and know which produced the most board footage. It was a fascinating project.

It seemed that I even created a file and was going to post it but I didn't finish it and then I forgot (it was late).

I finished adding the Activities table and it is attached. It is just one approach ...

plants.zip

Edited April 4, 2010 by Guest
Added paragraph

[Søren Dyhr]

I see LaRetta you agree with me - Efen must from the vicinity of Yorkshire where forresting have been an extinct business for centuries

http://www.yorkshiredalesguide.org.uk/yorkshire_dales_wildlife.html

--sd

[LaRetta]

Ha hah ahh! I certainly agree but we both might be wrong (yeah I know ... a rarity, ROF) and the need might be to create a flat file or the structure might be wrong. In truth, when I first read the request, I thought same as Efen but then realized why the duplication might be wanted.

[efen]

ROF?

Rush of fools?

Roll on Friday?

Retired old farts?

[LaRetta]

Oh Efen ... you just made me ROFLMAO!! it's Roll On Floor! Now my fingers won't work right! :giggle:

[Søren Dyhr]

Efen might already be in one of those 3NF Boyce Cott thingys way beyond 1 NF, and have seen the light shine to denormalize - could you walk us thru this realization please?

I'm on the other hand so awfully pleased to hear a newbe talk about records, that I might be carried away?

However Robert, take a look at LaRettas model and see if it has any bearing in your case, I would probably have solved it a tad differently. Instead using the relational model of:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/176396/post/204083/hl//fromsearch/1/

....and here have prepopulated with the largest possible plant population, all data for each plant will then be written an extra relaltional jump away. This way a record is only created when required, and by simply putting data in it ... month could be type or specie of the plant and you could strain the number of row in the portal via the needed number...

--sd

[Lee Smith]

ROF?

Retired old farts?

I like that one.