Brian Dunning's FileMaker Custom Functions

ListSum ( myList )

Add up a list of numbers

  Average rating: 4.1 (53 votes) Log in to vote

Tom Fitch   Tom Fitch - Show more from this author
http://www.fitchandfitch.com

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  Sample input:
1
2
3
  Sample output:
6

  Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

This replaces the list's carriage returns with semicolons so that the Sum function can be used, e.g. Sum(1;2;3). Non-recursive. Works with negative numbers.

Inspired by comments on the SUMLIST function.

Original from May 2011
Updated Aug. 2013
Now works with single (or empty) lists, per Mr. Cheang's comment below. Thanks to him and also to Agnès for pointing out that this only works for up to 1000 values (see comments below). It also doesn't do any other error checking such as if you feed in a bunch of blank lines or other nonsense.

 

Comments

Agnès   Agnès, France
May 25, 2011
Hello,

Be carreful with this type of calculation using

Evaluate ( Max or Evaluate ( Min or Evaluate ( Sum (...)

The result will be "?" if you have 1001 values in your list
 
Tom Fitch   Tom Fitch
May 25, 2011
Thanks, Agnès! You're correct. I wasn't able to locate any documentation of this limitation, and I'd like to know more about it. Can you point me to a reference?
 
Agnès   Agnès, France
May 26, 2011
I have no reference for this, just the tests I did with Evaluate and calculations in FileMaker.
There is no problem, usually we use this calculation on small lists, until the day where. this is what happened to me.

to test :

Let ([

myList = Customlist ( 1 ; nbr ; "[n]" ) ;

it = Substitute( myList ; ¶ ; ";" ) ;
Su = Substitute( myList ; ¶ ; "+" )
];
Evaluate( "Sum(" & it & ")" ) // Limit nbr : 1000
& ¶ &
Evaluate( Su ) // limit nbr : 5238
)
Let ( $Count = 0 ;
Customlist ( 1 ; nbr ; "Let ([ $Count = $Count + [n] ]; """" )" ) & $Count ) // limit nbr : 500000
 
Tom Fitch   Tom Fitch
May 26, 2011
Interesting. Thanks again for the info.
 
Bernard Cheang   Bernard Cheang, Singapore
Dec 29, 2011
It also doesn't work if you only have one item in the list. You need to do a check and append a "0" to the supplied list if there is only one item.
 
Kostas Papavasileiou   Kostas Papavasileiou, Athens
Aug 21, 2013
I m trying to sum up the Grand Totals of Time Billings at the Time Billings Layout. I m pretty novice. What's the function to add in the DB, please? having lost already ... Thank you very much ...
 
Tom Fitch   Tom Fitch
Aug 21, 2013
Mr. P, this isn't really a support site (and I don't understand your question).

I suggest fmforums.com or filemaker.com/technet/
 
Kostas Papavasileiou   Kostas Papavasileiou, Athens
Aug 22, 2013
Thank you very much! I will do so! Didn't see that was not right on my behalf to ask. Thakn you again.
 
Bill   Bill, Portland, Oregon
Sep 8, 2013
Thanks, Tom---just what I was looking for today.

67% Shotgun
 
Mike Gallagher   Mike Gallagher, Ft Lauderdale
Feb 5, 2014
Thanks as well... simplify the first argument to the following:
myList = myList

and it will work for standard deviation as well, e.g.:
result = Evaluate( "STDEV(" & it & ")" )
 

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