Custom Field Calculations

[scott_hanebutt]

I am trying to populate a custom field from calculations from two other
custom fields.

Finish1 = Finish (with rolled up, so it has summary finish dates) It works
fine

Finish3 = dates I entered but most of them were left "NA" It works fine

Number20 = Finish1 - Finish3 Does not work correctly

Number20 gives a result of 0 for all summary tasks, the correct result for
non-summary tasks when Finish3 had a date, and a large number for all
non-summary tasks that have Finish3 = "NA".

I can live with the large number problem but I have to have the summary
tasks calculate correctly.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Scott Hanebutt

 

[John]

I am trying to populate a custom field from calculations from two other
custom fields.

Finish1 = Finish (with rolled up, so it has summary finish dates) It works
fine

Finish3 = dates I entered but most of them were left "NA" It works fine

Number20 = Finish1 - Finish3 Does not work correctly

Number20 gives a result of 0 for all summary tasks, the correct result for
non-summary tasks when Finish3 had a date, and a large number for all
non-summary tasks that have Finish3 = "NA".

I can live with the large number problem but I have to have the summary
tasks calculate correctly.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Scott Hanebutt

Scott,
It works fine for me. This is how I set it up. Custom field
Finish1=Finish with Summary Lines as "rollup". Finish3 as user entered.
Calculation is set to automatic. Now the question is, what is the value
of Finish3 at the Summary Line. If it is rolled up it will either take
the minimum or maximum of all subtasks. If it is not folled up, the user
needs to enter a value.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[scott_hanebutt]

I do not have finish3 roled up. I manually entered dates into some of the
summary tasks, other summary tasks I want left blank. I did have automaticly
calculate turned on and told it to calculate anyway. It did not change
anything.

Any more help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott Hanebutt

 

[John]

I do not have finish3 roled up. I manually entered dates into some of the
summary tasks, other summary tasks I want left blank. I did have automaticly
calculate turned on and told it to calculate anyway. It did not change
anything.

Any more help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott Hanebutt

Scott,
Not that it should matter, but which version of Project are you using
and do you have all updates installed?

I don't have any other suggestions. If no one else chimes in with a
suggestion, would it be possible to zip and e-mail me the file (or a
sample file if it displays the behavior)? Maybe I can uncover something
with the actual file.

John
Project MVP

 

[scott_hanebutt]

I have emailed you a file containing the problem. Thanks for taking a look
at it.

Scott Hanebutt

 

[John]

I have emailed you a file containing the problem. Thanks for taking a look
at it.

Scott Hanebutt

Scott,
I forgot to mention one thing in my initial response to your post. Since
Number19 is a calculated field, in order for a value to appear on
Summary Lines, the formula for Number19 must be either rolled up or
calculated. Try either of those - I think it will solve your problem. If
not, write back and explain what you expect.

Just as an aside, I don't know what you are doing with the values, but
you could avoid the issue of large negative values with a simple VBA
macro instead of a formula. I find formulas are a little to restrictive
and not nearly as flexible as VBA so I never use them (except to answer
posts on the newsgroup). However, I realize not everybody knows or is
comfortable with VBA.

John
Project MVP