Duration

[JF Bouthillier]

I need a field to calculate project duration. How should I format that
field? Date/Time, Number?

Also, is there a way to force units of 15 minutes (not less)?

Thanks a lot everyone!

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

It should definitely be a number. The Date/Time data type is intended for
timestamps: under the covers, it's an 8 byte floating point number, where
the integer portion represents the date as the number of days relative to 30
Dec, 1899, and the decimal portion represents the time as a fraction of a
day.

Are you saying you only want values that are multiples of 15 minutes? I
don't believe you can do that at the table level: you'll have to do it in
the BeforeUpdate event of your form.

 

[Steve]

I need a field to calculate project duration. >

No you don't! That's a calculated value. You need a field, StartDate
(Date/Time) and EndDate(Date/Time). Calculate project duration when needed.

Re: force units of 15 minutes
Set this up as a Validation Rule with appropriate Validation Text in your
table.
** If this pertains to project duration, see above!!

PC Datasheet
Providing Customers A Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word
Applications
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Steve]

I need a field to calculate project duration. >

No you don't! That's a calculated value. You need a field, StartDate
(Date/Time) and EndDate(Date/Time). Calculate project duration when needed.

Re: force units of 15 minutes
Set this up as a Validation Rule with appropriate Validation Text in your
table.
** If this pertains to project duration, see above!!

PC Datasheet
Providing Customers A Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word
Applications
(e-mail address removed)

 

[JF Bouthillier]

That is really helpful... thanks

If I use an integer field, users want to enter the duration in hh:mm (ex.
1:30 for an hour and half)... When I set the format to hh:mm, it changes it
to medium time... and then the format gets changed automatically to a time
value (ex 12:00 AM) instead of duration.

Is there a solution for that? (apart from splitting it in 2 fields).

Thanks again.