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Need help with uniqueness test

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    Need help with uniqueness test

    I have a police report application that contains a parent table and a child table. The child table is called "Persons." When an officer starts a new record in the parent table, the linking key is assigned to the child table each time a new "person" is entered. Each "person" must have a unique "Person Code," i.e. "V-1" for Victim 1, "V-2" for Victim 2, "S-1" for Suspect 1, etc.

    The officer should never be able to enter the same "Person Code" twice in the same report, even though the same "Person Code" could appear many times across the overall "Persons" table.

    To prevent this form happening, I set a validation on the field in the component builder to test the "Person Code" for uniqueness (value must not exist), but it appears to be checking the entire table, as opposed to just within that particular record set.

    Is there an easy to way to make sure it is testing for uniqueness only as it applies to the current record set, i.e. linking key?
    Sergeant Richard Hartnett
    Hyattsville City Police Department
    Maryland

    #2
    Re: Need help with uniqueness test

    Test the combination of the two fields.....
    Al Buchholz
    Bookwood Systems, LTD
    Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

    Occam's Razor - KISS
    Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
    Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
    When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
    "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
    Albert Einstein

    http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Need help with uniqueness test

      Hi Al, you mean the Person Code & the Linking Key?
      Sergeant Richard Hartnett
      Hyattsville City Police Department
      Maryland

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Need help with uniqueness test

        Yes... How are you testing for uniqueness now?
        Al Buchholz
        Bookwood Systems, LTD
        Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

        Occam's Razor - KISS
        Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
        Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
        When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
        "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
        Albert Einstein

        http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Need help with uniqueness test

          Just using the built in cross-file validation setting of "Must Not Exist."
          Sergeant Richard Hartnett
          Hyattsville City Police Department
          Maryland

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Need help with uniqueness test

            I set a validation on the field in the component builder to test the "Person Code" for uniqueness (value must not exist), but it appears to be checking the entire table, as opposed to just within that particular record set.
            Richard, as you've discovered this what "uniqueness" means in the field rule. Only one occurrence in the entire table. As Al suggests what you really need is only one occurrence of the "combination" consisting of linkfield value and person_id in the table.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Need help with uniqueness test

              Thanks guys. Okay I figured I'd have to combine the Person Code with something else to make it truly "unique," and as Al said, it should be combined with the LinkingKey to keep it tied to that record set, but I'm not quite sure what the expression should look like.

              In the Validation Expression Type I have it set to "custom expression," and in the area to set up the expression I have the following:

              (LinkingKey) + (Code)

              and it is telling me that it is an invalid expression.

              Could you point me in the right direction as to the correct way to code this?
              Sergeant Richard Hartnett
              Hyattsville City Police Department
              Maryland

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                Check the data types. The plus symbol can only be used with character data types. YOu may may have to convert a field value to character type. Since the person code is character type I suspect your linkingKey field is not.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                  Actually both the LinkingKey and the Person Code are both Character Types.

                  The LinkingKey is an auto-incriment field which produces a number such as "S001) and the Person Code is just a regular "user filled" character field.

                  Do I have the expression set correctly?
                  Sergeant Richard Hartnett
                  Hyattsville City Police Department
                  Maryland

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                    Rich, I'm guilty of having been thinking desktop, and you're building a web app server database. Sorry. I don't know how the validation rules for the grid component work. Was thinking you were talking field rules for a desktop app. I apologize for any confusion. -- tom
                    Last edited by Tom Cone Jr; 12-21-2007, 11:39 AM.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                      Originally posted by Rich Hartnett View Post
                      Do I have the expression set correctly?
                      Not quite...

                      Did you look at the expression building dialog that is available for this feature?

                      You need an expression that evaluates to true.
                      Al Buchholz
                      Bookwood Systems, LTD
                      Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                      Occam's Razor - KISS
                      Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                      Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                      When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                      "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                      Albert Einstein

                      http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                        Yes I did Al, I just didn't understand it. I thought (LinkingKey) + (Code) would be the answer, but it just says it's an invalid expression. I'm still playing with it.
                        Sergeant Richard Hartnett
                        Hyattsville City Police Department
                        Maryland

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                          Richard

                          This is how I save a field to a table that is unique.

                          Code:
                          tbl.sessionid=alltrim(session.sessionID) + alltrim(ctime(session.timestamp))
                          You could also just look to see if the table already has the information keyed by the officer, if so just report it and ask it to be changed,
                          Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                          Albert Einstein, (attributed)
                          US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                            Richard,

                            I'm not sure if this will help you or not. I wonder if you have set up your grid component with a View query to a set. If not, this may limit the validation by indexing the validation to only the current report.

                            If I'm on the right track look at the help reference " Define an Alpha Five View Query" under Creating Web Components -> Grid Component Capabilities.

                            Mike

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Need help with uniqueness test

                              Hi Mike.

                              No this component is based on a Table Query.

                              So you don't think I can require the uniqueness validation because I'm using a table query instead of a view?
                              Sergeant Richard Hartnett
                              Hyattsville City Police Department
                              Maryland

                              Comment

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