Case function, a result based on a text fragment

[buckbuck]

I am trying to define a field to produce a "text" result based on a "text fragment".

Case (

Description *"Home Depot" or

Description *"GENERAL PAINT"

;"Production"; )

This is a ledger. When my 'Description field contains the text "Home Depot" or General Paint" I know the field "Expense Type" will be a 'Production' expense. This automates a small part of my book keeping.

Thanks

[eos]

If you have different expense types, a better solution might be to set up a table with these types and flag the records accordingly, based on certain criteria. This would be a more robust solution than to search for description values that might change over time, or have typos.

In the meantime, try

Case (

PatternCount ( Description ; "Home Depot" ) or PatternCount ( Description ; "general paint" ) ;

"Production" )

[buckbuck]

Eos

I am not sure what you accomplish by this. What I want to achieve are records with text based identifiers, ie; Production, Office, Utilities, Shipping etc.. This way the ledger can be summarized accordingly. Every month I import my bank statements. It just seemed a time saver to create this function since these suppliers are almost always classed or define as mentioned.

Is it possible to create this calculation?

Thanks

[eos]

Not sure what you mean; the calculation you are looking for is in my post.

[buckbuck]

PatternCount as I understand it gives me a numeric count of the number of occurrences. I want a text result. Your calculation does not give me the result I am looking for.

[Lee Smith]

Are you trying to have Keywords for the records, Something like iPhoto?

[eos]

PatternCount as I understand it gives me a numeric count of the number of occurrences. I want a text result. Your calculation does not give me the result I am looking for.

Obviously your understanding of PatternCount is not complete. In this case, the calculation checks if one of the two strings appears in the other field; if so, it sets the result of the field to “Production“, or leaves it empty otherwise - which, if I recall correctly, is what you're after. The numeric result of PatternCount () is merely used as a Boolean truth value, and is not the final result of the field calculation.

[buckbuck]

Yes, I would say yes. I am trying to have these keywords entered into the field automatically.

[comment]

Your calculation does not give me the result I am looking for.

Why don't you provide a specific example - such as: the Description field contains "...", the calculation returns "..." instead of the expected "...".

[LaRetta]

Also BuckBuck, the field should be type of CALCULATION set to text result and not auto-enter text (unless you need ability to over-ride the result). If you have existing data or sample text it won't change automatically if the field is text with auto-enter (do not replace). Is that why it appears not to work?

:-)

[buckbuck]

Thank you for the suggestions. In the end PatternCount works however I needed to apply LaRetta's comment regarding 'auto complete'.