* fundamental loop

[Ron Melby]

I am missing something so fundamental here, I am absolutely brain dead from staring and debugging this simple problem:

simple psuedocode:

Code: Select all

get this.INDI
   for FAMS do
     for CHIL do
        count CHIL
    enddo CHIL
  enddo FAMS
end this.INDI
return child count

actual code

Code: Select all

function rtvCHILCount(eptr)   
  local thisPTR = eptr:Clone()
  local ptrFAMS = fhNewItemPtr()
  local ptrFAM  = fhNewItemPtr()
  local ptrCHIL = fhNewItemPtr()

  local fam = 0
  local chil = 0

  ptrFAMS = fhGetItemPtr(thisPTR,'~.FAMS')
  if ptrFAMS:IsNull() then 
    return 0
  end

  while ptrFAMS:IsNotNull() do
    fam = fam + 1
    ptrFAM  = fhGetValueAsLink(ptrFAMS) -- if I use ptrFAM in the moveto below, I run off the page from INDI 
    ptrCHIL:MoveTo(ptrFAMS, '~.CHIL>')  -- if I use ptrFAMS I never find children 
    while ptrCHIL:IsNotNull() do
      chil = chil + 1
      ptrCHIL:MoveNext('SAME_TAG')
    end
    ptrFAMS:MoveNext('SAME_TAG')
  end

  return chil
end 

this has got to be the easiest thing in the world, but it isn't coming to me...

[tatewise]

Change the line near the middle to ptrCHIL:MoveTo(ptrFAM, '~.CHIL')
i.e.
Replace FAMS with FAM because you need the FAM record pointer not the FAMS tag pointer.
Replace CHIL> with CHIL because you need the CHIL tag pointer and not the INDI record pointer.

The reason it loops all INDIviduals is that CHIL> returns an INDI record pointer so the 'SAME_TAG' gets successive INDI records. If you check what is happing when debugging you should see that.

BTW: You don't need the statement below so delete it:
if ptrFAMS:IsNull() then
return 0
end