[Babase] Males data -- somewhat urgent update

Karl O. Pinc kop at meme.com
Thu Mar 6 15:32:58 EST 2008


On 03/06/2008 01:41:19 PM, Lacey Maryott wrote:
> No one needs to worry any longer, because Karl saved the day, Lacey  
> understood what Karl was saying and the query is done!!! :)

I was tired and taking shortcuts in my previous explanations, I think.

>  Susan (I
> hope) I have exactly what you were asking for, and I will be sending  
> it off to you right now!
> 
> Karl thanks so much for putting up with my steel case of a skull the  
> past few days!!!

Until you've done it a few times the self-joins strain the brain.
Without an alert body, a clear head, and a relaxed frame of mind
you soon get brain-lock and spin in circles accomplishing little.
Using good table/column aliases helps, but is not enough.

> I am definitely going to be documenting this
> procedure for future use!!!!!

Announce it here when it's available.  (I'm also antsy to
see the query that produces the MEMBERS table extended with
days-in-group and days-remaining-in-group.  I'm thinking that the
latter should be NULL for those "last intervals" where the Status
ends up as "alive".  I can't think what to do for birth though,
setting days-in-group to NULL does not make too much sense there.
In the general case is there any censoring happening at the
birth end of things?  Maybe the extended table needs a
status-at-the-end-of-the-interval column?)

Karl <kop at meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                  -- Robert A. Heinlein



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