Custom Field (Decimal)

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Wirmike
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Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by Wirmike »

I have started to put into place a marvellous new use to put Custom Fields to.

However, a major issue has arisen.

I am using fields set to Decimal w/- the ‘scale’ set to 2 Decimal Places.
Values in this field type may well frequently exceed 1,000.00.
Any value in the interval [0.00,999,99] will be successfully stored and displayed as such when the transaction is opened after Okay-ing

As the function of this field is to record a monetary value, then I would think that it should have the capability of recording the same range of values as in the other money fields in the transaction.

The Issue:
—————-
However, when attempting to input a value >999.99 fails and returns a field vale of 0.00 when viewing the transaction after Okay-ing.
Can you advise?

Question:
—————
Are Custom Fields protected against accidental deletion if there are data in those fields in other transactions - in a similar way to that offered to Categories in the transaction ‘proper’?
If not, can it be provided?

I am using the latest stable release 1.5.18.

Regards
MartinArmstrong
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Re: Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by MartinArmstrong »

Bug confirmed.

I've raised an issue: https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/4921

Are Custom Fields protected against accidental deletion if there are data in those fields in other transactions - in a similar way to that offered to Categories in the transaction ‘proper’?
If not, can it be provided?
No, they are not protected in the manner you describe. You always get a deletion confirmation message, with a default action of No, regardless of whether the field is in use by transactions or not.
CF_deletion.png
CF_deletion.png (13.96 KiB) Viewed 7631 times

For the moment you need to be careful when you delete custom fields.

But a question for you: Why would you need to delete a custom field anyway? If you have created it to use in transactions, then presumably it has meaning for those transactions, so why would you ever want to delete it? There's no problem with 'storage space' in the database.
Wirmike
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Re: Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by Wirmike »

Thank you for confirming and referring the Bug.

Re Custom Fields deleting.

To answer your question…
.. quite simply to guard against accidents - those times when one wishes that a little cleverness in coding may have guarded against one’s mental clumsiness. That is surely one advantage that computerisation makes possible.
An early introduction to me in coding Safeguarding data was in the CP/M days when ERA *.* was met w/- the cautionary question, “ALL FILES Y/N?” There has always been a need to minimise, neh, prevent a digital disaster - IRMC.

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whall3y
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Re: Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by whall3y »

Wirmike wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:13 pm Thank you for confirming and referring the Bug.

Re Custom Fields deleting.

To answer your question…
.. quite simply to guard against accidents - those times when one wishes that a little cleverness in coding may have guarded against one’s mental clumsiness. That is surely one advantage that computerisation makes possible.
An early introduction to me in coding Safeguarding data was in the CP/M days when ERA *.* was met w/- the cautionary question, “ALL FILES Y/N?” There has always been a need to minimise, neh, prevent a digital disaster - IRMC.

Regards.
But you do get that equivalent message.....
MartinArmstrong
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Re: Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by MartinArmstrong »

Wirmike wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:13 pm To answer your question…
.. quite simply to guard against accidents - those times when one wishes that a little cleverness in coding may have guarded against one’s mental clumsiness.
As @whall3y (and I) have said, you do get a very clear "do you really want to delete?" message (with a default response of 'No') and you have the safety net of automatic database backups.

If you haven't enabled these in Options, you should do so.

mmex backup.png
mmex backup.png (15.4 KiB) Viewed 7580 times
By renaming a .bak backup to be your current .mmb and opening that database, it is trivial to recover from accidents.

If you haven't tried this already, then I'd advise that you create a new test.mmb database (or copy & rename your main database if you wish) and then experiment with 'making a mistake' and recovering the previous version of your database.
Wirmike
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Re: Custom Field (Decimal)

Post by Wirmike »

Sorry for the delay in replying.
Yes, I did get a warning, but what I thought I was trying to convey was that “stuff happens!”.
I did say “Yes!” to deletion - and then wondered why I had, when ALL my work went into that inaccessible void called, oblivion. I seem to remember that at that time UNDELETE did not exist, or was a little known command and 8 1/2” floppies had no ‘recycle bin’!
Vexed was probably the gentlest thing I can say of my thoughts at the time: some errors can be second-guessed and programmed out (maybe), but those that fly in the face of warnings (often) can’t!
Some of the best lessons are the hard ones, and rarely forgotten!

..but I did learn a lot about writing an MBASIC database - from scratch!
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