Hi;
I'm trying to do a simple report with a summary.
It's working the way I do it but doesn't work when I copy what I see in the
Family Budget Example file.
So, I'm confused.

I'm working with the French version of the examples and with the user
language set to French in the preferences. But my confsusion isn't there, as
far as I can make out.

In the Family Buget examples
------------------------------
there is a monthly summary where totals are done on various numbers, such as
"Income" (French = "Revenu"),
In the reports, the "total Income field" is summed at each break. Now, when
you check the Total income field, it is not a summary ("Statistique") type
field but a Calculation ("Calcul)" field doing a Sum of Income. I expected
it to be a Summary field.

So now in my own little test base
---------------------------------
I have a field called Status and a field called Counter. Counter is a
number type field always set to 1 by auto-input. And I have a Total of
counter.
So now when I do a report, with a sort on status and I include the Total of
Counter the result varies according to the type I define.
When I define Total of Counter as a Calculation Type field, *as shown in the
FM example* it is always 1 in the report whereas the in the example it sums
OK.
When I define Total of Counter as a Summary type field it works fine and
that seems logical enough.

So how come it works in the example as a calculation ?
And how come I can't get it to work when it is a calculation ?

TIA
Confused Newbie.

On Aug 11, 3:43 am, "Confused Newbie" <Confu... [at] ConfusedNewbie.net>
wrote:
> Hi;
> I'm trying to do a simple report with a summary.
> It's working the way I do it but doesn't work when I copy what I see in the
> Family Budget Example file.
> So, I'm confused.
>
> I'm working with the French version of the examples and with the user
> language set to French in the preferences. But my confsusion isn't there, as
> far as I can make out.
>
> In the Family Buget examples
> ------------------------------
> there is a monthly summary where totals are done on various numbers, such as
> "Income" (French = "Revenu"),
> In the reports, the "total Income field" is summed at each break. Now, when
> you check the Total income field, it is not a summary ("Statistique") type
> field but a Calculation ("Calcul)" field doing a Sum of Income. I expected
> it to be a Summary field.
>
> So now in my own little test base
> ---------------------------------
> I have a field called Status and a field called Counter. Counter is a
> number type field always set to 1 by auto-input. And I have a Total of
> counter.
> So now when I do a report, with a sort on status and I include the Total of
> Counter the result varies according to the type I define.
> When I define Total of Counter as a Calculation Type field, *as shown in the
> FM example* it is always 1 in the report whereas the in the example it sums
> OK.
> When I define Total of Counter as a Summary type field it works fine and
> that seems logical enough.
>
> So how come it works in the example as a calculation ?
> And how come I can't get it to work when it is a calculation ?
>
> TIA
> Confused Newbie.

It's understandable you're confused. The example files included with
Filemaker are worse than useless. Ignore them and you'll be fine.
The reason why Count works in the examples is because they use
repeating fields, something no one should be doing to accomplish the
tasks of the examples.

OK, Grip.
Thanks for that .
Doesn't that mean that it would be a good idea for a dev guru, who wants to
generate interest and excitement about his skills and solutions, to set up
some really smart examples that do work.

I've just looked through the postings for the past few days and quite a few
of them seem to be dealing with the job I'm trying to do, i.e. keep track of
progress on this that or the other, bug correction tracking, database
development, project management in general. The idea seems to be "If you're
making an application for me you may as well make a data base in FM so I can
keep track on your progress (or lack of it).

Is there a site somewhere that shows some basic, usable, unconfusing
technique-examples?

TIA

Understandably-Confused Newbie.

On Aug 11, 8:48 am, "Confused Newbie" <Confu... [at] ConfusedNewbie.net>
wrote:
> OK, Grip.
> Thanks for that .
> Doesn't that mean that it would be a good idea for a dev guru, who wants to
> generate interest and excitement about his skills and solutions, to set up
> some really smart examples that do work.
>
> I've just looked through the postings for the past few days and quite a few
> of them seem to be dealing with the job I'm trying to do, i.e. keep track of
> progress on this that or the other, bug correction tracking, database
> development, project management in general. The idea seems to be "If you're
> making an application for me you may as well make a data base in FM so I can
> keep track on your progress (or lack of it).
>
> Is there a site somewhere that shows some basic, usable, unconfusing
> technique-examples?
>
> TIA
>
> Understandably-Confused Newbie.

You can search the net for good file examples, but someone's already
made those good examples put them on a CD that's included in their
book, but, to tell you the truth, most everything I learned about
Filemaker I learned from the Help file and the Internet.

Maybe someone else can recommend a Filemaker reference with good file
examples?

G

"but someone's already
made those good examples " ...

Who's that ? Which book ?
Thanks.

Gradually getting Unconfused