What do you mean by that? Could you please elaborate? Thx for the thorough evaluation tho! @ABG
1 Like
To do this do I use dictionary blocks or list blocks? Or is there something else I'm not understanding here? @ABG
1 Like
How would the app know that I want to open Screen1 if I close the monthly screen? I can't do them both at the same time. 
@ABG
1 Like
Please read the chapter 21 on procedures in the free online book
http://www.appinventor.org/book2
from
Read the chapter all the way to the end.
1 Like
See
from
1 Like
If you are doing accounting, with the same kind of data you would have loaded into a spreadsheet, use tables. This is for consistently shaped data,
If your data is lumpy or ragged, with missing or extra or deeply nested pieces that won't fit evenly into rows and columns, you need dictionaries.
Here is a sample project for you to read:
also
1 Like
Ah that clears it up now thx
Thx! Will look into your suggestions.
Um to make the database, do I use a csv sheet or the blocks as shown in the document? Or can I use either? @ABG
Never mind the question above I already done one in MIT App Inventor. Does this look about right so far? @ABG
unfortunately not, as @ABG already explained earlier
you first should do some more tutorials to learn the basics...
additionally it does not make much sense to copy blocks like you did for each of the categories.... and this is only one month... now the same monster block for the other months? you are repeating over and over again...
DRY - Don't repeat yourself
Taifun
1 Like
Oh... now I'm confused about this table. So am I supposed to do this in a csv document? I am not so sure on how I'm supposed to complete the table correctly. I'm trying to understand the document that @ABG shared with me. I've honestly never attempted something like this on App Inventor before. @Taifun
Also, when I complete this table/database, am I able to turn the values back into their specific categories? Or is this supposed to replace the TinyDB that I've implemented into my code? Pls explain. @ABG @Taifun
Thx for the tip!
Here are a couple of more samples to read, to get a feel for how to work with lists and TinyDB tags and values ...
I'm not sure on how my csv sheet is supposed to look like. What is the format or do I just add commas? What are those symbols highlighted in black? I think I can work it out if I understand how csv sheets work in App Inventor since I can understand majority of the blocks in this post and your documents so far. Pls explain how I can create one properly. Thanks!
The CRLF in black is Notepad++'s way of telling its users there are two otherwise invisible characters (carriage return and Line Feed) at the end of each line, typical of a text file on the Windows platform.
How is your CSV file supposed to look like?
A CSV file is typically used to transport a table across machines as a text file.
If you want to transport your monthly budget and spending data by category,
your CSV file would contain 4 columns, as I described at Turning Ranked Numbers Into Word Tags - #2 by ABG
Comma Separated Values (CSV) files have the data items in each line separated by commas (,). Don't ask for trouble by putting commas inside your data items without protecting them with quotes ("Bond, James Bond"), otherwise your column count will be off when you try to read that row.
CSV files, while good for data transport and long term storage, are inconvenient for updating and accessing individual data items. TinyDB would be easier during the current month, if you built tags containing enough information to home in on just the value you want to retrieve and update, like
tag : value
202112/snacks/BUDGETTED : 20.00
202112/snacks/ACTUAL : 25.00
202112/travel/BUDGETTED : 50.00
202112.travel/ACTUAL : 20
(Bottom line, I stayed home and snacked this month.)
Every day as I spend money, I would retrieve the ACTUAL for that item and update it in TinyDB.
At end of month, I would take a TinyDB Taglist, and build a CSV file for export or an in-memory table if I want to do list manipulation (filtering, sorting, summarizing.)
1 Like
Ohhhhhh, everything makes sense now! Thanks a lot! I don't need the CRLF right since I don't use notepad++ or do I need it? If it is required, how am I supposed to find that symbol? Thanks again for the detailed explanation!
Do I need quotes as well for the date and amount of money since they are numbers?
there seem to be colons and slashes in each of the rows, do I need that or do I just use commas since it is a csv sheet?
Are you a citizen of one of those countries that uses commas instead of decimal points in numbers?
ummmm for cents we use decimals but for thousands we use commas, eg RM2,000.30. hope that makes sense. Why is this important?