There have been discussions of various surprises and foibles --
static values stored instead of formulae;
static values within rather than cell references stored in formulae;
erroneous formulae
odd handling of percent-formatted fields
-- going back to 2005. I'd like to know what to expect in 7.6.5 and 7.6.8.

Does anyone have a summary of the extent to which this format fulfills its promises?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

Jack,

Being an ex. you sould know what to expect -

"More of the same"

T

Suggest you go to http://techsupport.information...f_fix_ALLA_7610.html and then screen on formula. The open issues in programming are new feature request to expand it for FML (FOR) and OVER, and more prefix operators in subtotal.

The issue of % is that in WF, the % display is just that. While in EXCEL, the default % display causes the displayed number to be multiplied by 100. If we wanted to adjust for that excell behavior, we would have to divide the raw number by 100 before putting it in the spread sheet. Or suround your equation with () and add a /100 to the equation. But what if you have other computations using that % number ... it takes us down a road that can lead to wrong results. So we keep the number true to what you had in the fex and we do format it with % .. but it is a form of the excel % formatting that does NOT multiply by 100 at display time.

Brian --

Nice that it's an Active document, so one can apply filters. The first match on "formula" is interesting:

  
Known Problems

Known Problems
Summary: EXL2K FORMULA fails to insert COMPUTE FLD Formula expression 
Case: 42802517 
Product: Developer Studio 
Status: Closed 
Date Reported: 11/13/2008 

Environment Detail Information

 Product Release Gen Level OS 
Reported in: Developer Studio 7.1.3  WIN/2K 
Fixed in: Developer Studio 7.6.10  WIN/2K 
Fixed in: Developer Studio 7.7.0  WIN/2K 

Problem Detail Information

Description:

EXL2K FORMULA fails to insert a COMPUTE Field Formula expression.

Workaround:

none

Like
-- no attempt to delimit the scope of the problem - so there's absolutely no strong of a formula for compute columns prior to 7.6.10? Then some of our posters must be halucinating.

-- what does this have to do with Dev Studio -- it's the WF reporting server that executes the request.

I opened at least one of the NFR's (e.g. NFR - EXL2K FORMULA SUPPORT FOR FML).

By v7.6.5 it's still a half-baked idea. I can't believe that when this feature was introduced it did not work with FML - a formula driven reporting language if there was ever one. No formula for Financial Reporting you say? Ridiculous I say.

Improving the process that produces the cleansed cases is an active project. Since you are seeing the original case it is reflecting the product the original customer entered. Thats why it's nice to have the AREAs in the fix list since that is much cleaner (we fix that as it moves through the process).

AREAs?

Anyway -- has anyone had success inducing the "FORMAT EXL2K FORMULA" genii to render formulas for the cells (in detail lines) of a COMPUTE column attached to an ACROSS?

For instance, the SUM column (column F) in the spreadsheet produced by ...

APP PREPENDPATH IBISAMP 
TABLE FILE CAR
  COUNT ENTRIES 
    BY COUNTRY
    BY CAR
    ACROSS SEATS 
      COMPUTE SUM/D12.2 = C1 + C2 + C3;
  IF SEATS EQ 2 OR 4 OR 5
  ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT 'EXL2K FORMULA'
END

... contains just constants.

(WF 7.6.8)

It appears the hangup is ACROSS. If you re-engineer to avoid that, formulae are generated.

These both behave properly:

APP PREPENDPATH IBISAMP 
DEFINE FILE CAR
N2/I3S=IF SEATS EQ 2 THEN 1 ELSE 0;
N4/I3S=IF SEATS EQ 4 THEN 1 ELSE 0;
N5/I3S=IF SEATS EQ 5 THEN 1 ELSE 0;
END
TABLE FILE CAR
SUM N2 N4 N5 AND COMPUTE SUM/I3=N2+N4+N5;
BY COUNTRY
BY CAR
ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT EXL2K FORMULA
ON TABLE COLUMN-TOTAL
END


APP PREPENDPATH IBISAMP 
TABLE FILE CAR
COUNT ENTRIES BY COUNTRY BY CAR ACROSS SEATS  
IF SEATS EQ 2 OR 4 OR 5
ON TABLE SET ASNAMES ON
ON TABLE HOLD
END
?FF HOLD
TABLE FILE HOLD
WRITE COU2 COU4 COU5 AND COMPUTE SUM/I3=C1 + C2 + C3;
BY COUNTRY BY CAR
ON TABLE SUMMARIZE
ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT EXL2K FORMULA
END