Re: storing fractions of inches in a data field

Usually 10,000's of an inch accuracies are reserved for the most accurate machining on VERY precise built equipment. If it's a lumber yard or dealing
with wood, anything less than 1/16th of an inch cannot be distinguished because of the existing imperfections and/or shrinkage of wood.

Speaking of decimal inches, I once had a 250' tape measure that had fractional inches broken down into tenths. It was easier to measure antennas when
we were building them to measure precisely against wavelength calculations. I argued against it because there was no real need to go into that detail
if we were not going to calculate line loss and compensate by specific resistance and the other assorted variables. We were after all just creating
field expedient antennas and wagging the construction, impossible to construct in the field a dipole that doesn't droop or have some other issue. Why
get to the extreme of cutting the length to 10th's of an inch when you start chopping up the ends to make twist tie connections to a stripped out BNC
cable. I once tied the end onto the scraped off bark of a small tree to use it as a modified resistor to make the direction of the antenna
unidirectional. They didn't think it'd work, but it worked perfectly. So I drank for free that night, you gotta love stupid bets.

Anyways, if you have to store the info, then I'd have to agree to store it in a single decimal notation and present it to the workers in their
preferred manner. If/when you go some other route the information is still usable. If you were to store it in seperate fields you have to figure out
the logic later if the presentation changes and they decide to go some other route. The measurements are still valid and can be calculated much
easier in a single field if the computer were to do the work that the workers now do. Try not to pigeon hole yourself into any future changes based
purely on the workers preferred display.

Good luck,
Bill Epperson Jr.
Systems Communications Analyst
Memorial Health System
(719) 365-8831





Mike <koldark@xxxxxxxxx>

Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx To
"Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc
12/12/2008 09:01 AM
Subject
Re: storing fractions of inches in a data field
Please respond to
Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>







I have heard my electrical engineer uncle talk about accuracy to 10,000 of
an inch.

--
Mike Wills
Midrange Programmer/Analyst
http://whois.mikewills.name/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewills


On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 9:50 AM, Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thats what I find funny! Their shop guys can, and do, work in both
English and Metric, but they can't work in decimal inches. I had even
discussed changing to tenths of inches but man, that was met with blank
stares. :)

smorrison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Tell the shop floor to get with modern times. Toss all those old
measurements and convert it all to metric! ;-)


Steven Morrison
Fidelity Express





"McKown, John" <John.Mckown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
12/12/2008 09:30 AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


To
"Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc

Subject
RE: storing fractions of inches in a data field

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Booth Martin
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 9:07 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: storing fractions of inches in a data field

I have an application that goes back to the 1970s which
measures stock
in inches and fractions. It was designed with 2 fields for every
measurement{ a field for whole inches and a field for
sixteenths. 3,
8 would be 3 1/2 inches, 3 9 would be 3, 9/16ths inches.
There is
some talk of modernizing that.

What would be another way of handling it? 3.5 and 3.5625 are
probably
not going to fly as a solution since it is too hard to teach on the
production floor (I am told).

Any ideas? Alternatives that might work? :)

--
---------------------------------
Booth Martin

Why change what "the floor" sees at all? If you want to store the
information in a "integer" type field, why not just say that the field
contains the size of the part in units of 1/16 inch? On input, you still
have the two fields. I don't know the names, so I'll just say that I1 is
the inches and I2 is the 16ths of an inch. Store the variable via

UPDATE table SET column=I1*16+I2;

When you want to display, get the column into a host variable and recalc
I1 and I2.

In C, I would do this as:

I1=column>>4; /* integer divide by 16 */
I2=column&&0x0F /* remainder after divide by 16 */

In COBOL, something like:

DIVIDE column BY 16 GIVING I1 REMAINDER I2.

--
John McKown
Systems Engineer IV
IT

Administrative Services Group

HealthMarkets(r)
Administrative Services Group
9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010
(817) 255-3225 phone * (817)-961-6183 cell
john.mckown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * www.HealthMarkets.com

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments,
is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain
confidential or proprietary information. Any unauthorized review, use,
disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended
recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all
copies of the original message.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.16/1842 - Release Date:

12/10/2008 6:53 PM

--
---------------------------------
Booth Martin
http://www.Martinvt.com
---------------------------------

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.