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ZkdogFlag for United States of America

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Convert String to Number Field

I have a the below formula that is erroring out because it states that the third field is a string, not a number (even though it is a number, it's classified as a string for some reason.

({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}+{schpri.priority})*1000

Now I made another formula to convert it to a to a number using tonumber({schpri.priority})

When I replace the third field with the code, it tells me that everything in the parentheses needs to be a currency or a number amount.

({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}+{@Pri_Num_Convert})*1000

What am I doing wrong?
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Cyril Joudieh
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It seems like you are subtracting a number from a date.

You cannot do that. You need to subtract number from number and date from date.

(date2-date1+1) * daterate

date2-date1 gives you number of days difference and you add 1 to get number of days and them multiply by the rate per day to get the wage.
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ASKER

I am trying to subtract a number from a date and understand what you are saying but the solution is off I think.   {schjob.totlabour} is actually the total time, in days, numerically that it would take complete said job. So I would need something like.....
(({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}) +{Formula}))*1000.  Would that be correct?
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ASKER

Ok just got done talking with some higher ups and we can actually drop the Formula*1000 part entirely.

So basically what I need now is ({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}).  Essentially I need to subtract hours from a date I believe.  I'm thinking the way to do this would be convert the duedate field over to a number similiar to a Julian Date Number and then subtract the number of hours from it.  Or possibly if I can find a field that includes date AND time for the due date and subtract the hours from it?
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Mike McCracken

A Date - Days is still a date.

What is the formula trying to calculate?

mlmcc
You can subtract days from date or date from another date.

date-numeric = date
date-date = numeric

for the formula you need to work on numbers.

so first get the number of days and then multiply to get whatever you need.

You don't need Julian. Date can do it.

? CTOD("12/31/2010")-DATE() gives you days to Christmas.

Hope this made it easy.
I meant New Year Eve not Christmas.
Try doing the work in small pieces to find out precisely what is wrong.

Set up your data tables as needed and then from your VFP Command window try:
   ?{multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}
Does that error out?

If not then try
   FirstValue = ({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour})
   ?TYPE('FirstValue')
   ?FirstValue  +  {schpri.priority}
Again, does that error out?

Going on until you either get it working or determine what the precise error is.....
   SecondValue = FirstValue  +  {schpri.priority}
   ?TYPE('SecondValue')
   ? SecondValue  *1000

Another alternative would be to insert a SET STEP ON into your code just before the execution of the code in question.    
Then use the TRACE Window to examine the contents of each field in question BEFORE the code line executes.

Also...  
Now I made another formula to convert it to a to a number using tonumber({schpri.priority})
   ToNumber()   ???
That is not a VFP function.  
Did you create your own Function using the VFP Functions  VAL() and maybe INT() ?
 
Good Luck
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ASKER

mlmcc: Essentially an arbitrary number to schedule and sort operations by.  We need DueDate - Total Labour(in hours).   The number can be in any format as it will be supressed and is just for sorting purposes.

CaptainCyril: This looks like it may work. I'm not sure, however what you mean by the ? CTOD part of the formula.  I didn't find any commands similiar to it.  If I used ({multdely.duedate} -  DATE("Jan 1, 2010")) would return say, 345 then subtract say 1.2 (totlabour) returning 343.8?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Mike McCracken

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Total Labour is that a number meaning hours? If you subtract it from a Date which is DueDate then the result is a date and you can't multiply a date with another number.

({multdely.duedate}-{schjob.totlabour}+{schpri.priority})*1000

From what I understand from you

duedate is a date
totlabour is a numeric
priority is a string

You need an operation on 2 dates to get a number.
To conver a string to a number you use VAL(priority)