Learning on to use Pan X

Panorama X
1

I am trying to get away from Pan 6 and use Pan X more.
I have used Panorama since it first came out, and one of the keys to learning how to use it was the documentation, it was massive. The handbook was over 1,000 pages and had Panorama Essentials, Reference, and formulas & Programming.
Because of these guides, I was able to tailor Panorama databases and learn how to use Panorama.

Do these massive handbooks exist in Pan X?
If so, it would help me with all of the questions I was able to find and answer in the decades of using Pan 6.
Of course, I have gone through the help file on Pan X, but still can’t answer simple questions like if I had a database of 8,000 names and I needed to go off a text file of 150 names how to search the 8,000 names to find the 150 names.

What I am asking, am I too old fashion in looking at PDF files and can find what I need of the Pan X help file???

Thanks for the help.

2

Panorama is essentially still Panorama. Instead of attempting to fight the fact that it has newer versioned name, and all of that, how about trying to do it exactly how you would do it in Panorama 6? And then work on the issues that you are confronted with. Yes, there may be some statements or functions that may no longer be available, but the reality is that there is far more that will work just fine, than the few that may no longer exist. And for every of those that do not exist, there is typically a better replacement that does all of what existed before, but it now does it better.

You might in fact suffer greatly by doing it the old way instead of the new ways using the new functions and statements, but little by little you will learn of newer, easier ways to do what you used to do in Panorama 6 with less code (or didn’t do at all because it was neigh impossible for the average person to pull off.)

Try just naming your Panorama file with the .pan extension and let Panorama X import it. Then see what it does or doesn’t do. Panorama does an amazing job automatically converting Panorama 6 files.

3

Thank you!

I can’t answer that question either – I really don’t understand what you are trying to do. Find the 150 names and then do what with them?? Since you think the Panorama 6 PDF documentation was so fantastic, can you tell us where in the PDF it described how to perform this operation? I don’t think it is in there.

If you simply want to select all records in the 8,000 record database that match up with a 150 record database, that would actually be pretty difficult to do in Panorama 6. I think it could be done with a combination of the select statement and the lookup( function, but it will be a bit slow. Note that I said “150 record database”, not “150 record text file”, whether you use Panorama 6 or X you’ll want to bring the text file into a database before actually doing the selection operation.

Robert is correct that many operations are the same between Panorama 6 and X, and the select/lookup method could also work with Panorama X. However, Panorama X 10.2 has a new relational feature that I think will make your task relatively simple. You’ll need to start by defining the relation between the two databases (i.e., which fields in database A match which fields in database B). There’s a detailed help page for that, and also if you purchased the Mastering Panorama X 10.2 course there is a three part training session on this topic.

The relational feature is very flexible, which makes it complicated, but at the core it is really a simple feature. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the dialog you will usually be able to set up a relation between two databases in less than 5 minutes.

Once the relationship is set up, the selectrecordsrelatedto statement will select records that match between the two databases, and it will do it very fast.

The Panorama 6 PDF files were actually over 2,500 pages.

There are no PDF files for Panorama X. I don’t know how many pages are in the Panorama X help files, but I think it is somewhere between 5,000 to 8,000 pages. One of these days I will figure out a way to count the pages. This documentation contains virtually all of the material that was in the Panorama 6 documentation (excluding material that is now obsolete) and a lot of new material. And the Panorama X documentation has even more illustrations and screen shots than the PDF files, and better yet, many of the illustrations are animated, which wasn’t possible in the PDF format. And of course there is also 76 hours of video training available, much of it free.

So if you want massive documentation, I think we’ve got you covered.

4

Ok, here is the most important file I have in Pan 6. It’s called Compare Names.

I do golf databases in which I put records of each tournament via a player’s score. So there is this database called 2022 golf database in which there are 10 golf tournaments with 150 players in each tournament, so at the end of the year, I have a database with 1,150 records.
So I now want to group each player’s records in the 2022 database over the year. So let’s say I want to look at 20 players’ records, again, some may have only played once, but others may have played in as many as ten events over the year.

So I have my main 2022 database that has 1,150 scores. The most important field is the player’s name, which I call “NAME” The rest of the database has information on each player’s score in the four-round event and the money he won. I also have other information that is important to me, but again each record has the most important element, which is the field “NAME.”
My second database is called “Compare Names.”
The first field is Missing Names.

Now someone wrote this program for me about 20 years ago, and I have never questioned it or tried to figure it out again because it has worked so well for 20 years.

What I am doing with this Compare Names database is being able to open up a text file that has the names of the 20 players I want to select from the 2022 database. So in the text file I select the 20 or so players and it gets put on my clipboard.

In the Compare Names database, I run a procedure that seems to have two items in it
.Initialize
Compare Names.

So here is the formula that seems to run this:
First for .Initialize:

Global gvNames gvNames=""

                      Then there is the Compare Names formula that runs this:

Global gvNames

Clipboard = replace(Clipboard()," ",¶)

gvNames = arraystrip(Clipboard(),¶)

ArrayFilter gvNames,gvNames,¶,strip(import())

Global folder,file,type

OpenFileDialog folder,file,type,""

If file = “” Stop Endif

OpenFile pathstr(folder)+file

Local cycles cycles = 1

Loop

Select NAME = array(gvNames,cycles,¶)

cycles = cycles+1

Until info(“Empty”) = 0 or cycles = arraysize(gvNames,¶)

If cycles = arraysize(gvNames,¶) and info(“Empty”) = -1

Message “None were found.”

Stop

EndIf

Loop

SelectAdditional NAME = array(gvNames,cycles,¶)

cycles = cycles+1

Until cycles = arraysize(gvNames,¶)

Local lvNames ArrayBuild lvNames,¶,"",NAME

ArrayFilter gvNames,gvNames,¶,?(lvNames contains import(),"",Import())

gvNames = arraystrip(gvNames,¶)

WindowtoBack info(“WindowName”)

Showvariables gvNames

OpenFile “&@gvNames”

So I have on the clipboard the 20 NAMES I am looking to select in my 2022 database.

I run the action called Compare Names, and sure enough, on the 2022 database, the 20 names are selected.

Hopefully, someone can help me with this???
Thanks

5

As far as I can see, that entire procedure can be run exactly as it is. If that’s not the case, it would be helpful to know the error message, or how the results differ from what you want.

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