Form error checking - adding up to 100%

Rick Benton

I was asked to create a survey where various locations would be asked the total parking area and then percentages of the area dedicated to particular usage (i.e. tractor trailer parking, truck parking, customer, etc.) I can set up the field for this easily enough but I am running into an issue of making sure the numbers add up to 100%.

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this?

Mary_A

@Rick Benton

Can't you just ask them to enter the actual number for each of these and then calculate the percentage? You also have to anticipate that each location has a varied number of spaces.

Say, 25 total spaces

• 4 for tractor trailer
• 3 for truck
• 17 customer
• 1 handicapped

Then, what you are really checking is the value of each component against a total.

Since you want to use survey -- you would use a form right? You can't use a form to do collect and check for accurate entry on the fly. But you could write a form that collects initial survey and the email of the person completing it. Then, if a person enters values that don't sum to the total, send an update request.

This technique would require a helper to check that the categories sum to the Total Spaces. You may also want to report back the percentages on each type. In this case, the helper returns 0 so I know the sum is correct -- the constituent pieces add up to 100%

If a non zero is in the helper, then I generate an update request.

Mary_A

@Rick Benton

Can't you just ask them to enter the actual number for each of these and then calculate the percentage? You also have to anticipate that each location has a varied number of spaces.

Say, 25 total spaces

• 4 for tractor trailer
• 3 for truck
• 17 customer
• 1 handicapped

Then, what you are really checking is the value of each component against a total.

Since you want to use survey -- you would use a form right? You can't use a form to do collect and check for accurate entry on the fly. But you could write a form that collects initial survey and the email of the person completing it. Then, if a person enters values that don't sum to the total, send an update request.

This technique would require a helper to check that the categories sum to the Total Spaces. You may also want to report back the percentages on each type. In this case, the helper returns 0 so I know the sum is correct -- the constituent pieces add up to 100%

If a non zero is in the helper, then I generate an update request.