paradox 11 and creating a database

I've asked a few questions before and the answers were really helpful.

I'm an attorney who does a large number (>500) of cases every year.
These cases are short from beginning to end, about 60 days. Because I
use Wordperfect for most of my documents, I'd like to set up a paradox
database to use for merging my WP docs and also for billing. The
billing is not very complicated. It is usually a flat fee and no
hourly charges.

I need to keep track of about 6-10 billing events and up to 6 persons
on each case.

I learn quickly and have a basic understanding at this point. I've
already created a database for the client information but want to
expand it.

Any information would be helpful. I also anticipate handing this off
to a programmer for more complicated issues.

To start I would like some help on the following issues.

I need a record number that is related to the year and the actual file
number (e.g. 08-0001) how do I have that show up and advance one for
each record I create?

I have some vista machines but plan on running the db on an xp box.
What is a good front end program for Vista?

thanks.

j.

On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:41:47 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

> I've asked a few questions before and the answers were really helpful.
>
> I'm an attorney who does a large number (>500) of cases every year.
> These cases are short from beginning to end, about 60 days. Because I
> use Wordperfect for most of my documents, I'd like to set up a paradox
> database to use for merging my WP docs and also for billing. The
> billing is not very complicated. It is usually a flat fee and no
> hourly charges.
>
> I need to keep track of about 6-10 billing events and up to 6 persons
> on each case.
>
> I learn quickly and have a basic understanding at this point. I've
> already created a database for the client information but want to
> expand it.
>
> Any information would be helpful. I also anticipate handing this off
> to a programmer for more complicated issues.
>
> To start I would like some help on the following issues.
>
> I need a record number that is related to the year and the actual file
> number (e.g. 08-0001) how do I have that show up and advance one for
> each record I create?

I may not get the syntax exactly right; I don't write in OPAL that
often. I'm sure we'll get corrections if I'm wrong.

Create a table (say CaseNum), with one integer field (say CaseNo), and
one record. At the start of each year, initialize the field to the
value of 1.

Var
Yr, Case String
I Integer
TC TCursor
EndVar

Yr = Year(Today())
Yr = Yr.Substr(Yr.Size() - 1, 2) ; extracts last two digits of year
TC.Open("CaseNum") ; might want some error checking here
TC.Edit()
I = TC."CaseNo"
TC."CaseNo" = I + 1 ; increment case number for the next case
TC.Close()
Case = "000" + string(I) ; adds leading zeroes
Case = Case.Substr(Case.Size() - 3, 4) ; extracts last four digits

Your case number then is Yr + "-" + Case

Afterthought: you could put another field in your table in which the
year is stored. Don't get the year from there, but after opening the
table and turning Edit on, compare the year stored there with the year
you got in the first two statements. If they are the same, continue
as above. If they are different, set the year field to the current
year and set the case number to 1. Then continue with the rest of the
statements.

Bill

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