Hi,
I have an ANCIENT copy of Paradox 5 that I got when I purchased
PerfectOffice many, many, many years ago. I'm not a complete novice working
with databases, but I'm dang close. The volume of data I'll be working with
is large, but my needs are EXTREMELY simple (I think I can do everything
with just one table). I'm thinking I'll probably need to get something like
Access, but I thought I'd check to see if my ancient copy of Paradox 5 can
do it.

1) How are Paradox 5's query and reporting functions with respect to
reliability and ease-of-learning? Again, even though I'll have LOTS of
records, the database structure is simple. I just need to take the data and
get answers like, "For all sales made between 1-1-2005 and 12-31-2005, and
that were made in Region A, and [a few other criteria], what was the median
sales price?" Or, "Give me a list of all Regions that meet the following
criteria."

2) Is Paradox 5 reliable with 200,000 records?

Please let me know if this is do-able in Paradox 5. I looked in the
manual's index for entries on "median" or "built-in functions" or
"functions" and found nothing. The entries under "operators" were not
promising.

Thank you.

Very reliable and fairly easy to learn.

No problem in Paradox as long as you set up your databae correctly.

Should be.

It is, but remember that is a very old 16-bit version. I wouldn't install
that today. I would get a later version, the cost of the software is nothing
compared to the time you will invest in entering data, creating queries and
reports.

Anders

same answers as Anders gave you.. Paradox is much easier than Access, much
more robust than Access, and you'll get way more and way better help from
the Paradox community..

and I sell other versions on my web site..


--
Steven Green - Waldorf Maryland USA

Diamond Software Group
http://www.diamondsg.com/main.htm
Paradox Support & Sales - Corel CTech Paradox

Diamond Sports Gems
http://www.diamondsg.com/gemsmain.htm
Sports Memorabilia and Trading Cards

"FE" <never_say_spam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

Seems unlikely you can do a sales related database in one table and do it right.
I strongly suggest you check out my papers on Normalization and Databases Basics
on our Paradox resources page (link in my signature). The first will give you a
basic understanding of database design issues. The second will give you info on
best practices and common pitfalls for Paradox. It all still applies to P5.

Denn Santoro
President
Resource Development Associates
http://www.RDAWorldWide.Com
Offices in the United States and Germany
Providing solutions to health care, business, governments and non-profits since
1982

"Steven Green" <greens (AT) diamondsg (DOT) com> wrote

built in functions. If I want to do something like calculate the median,
would I need to then create my own formula?

Don't think spreadsheet. It isn't one. Calculating median isn't that difficult
but it requires you define the population you want the median of and then
sorting and evaluating the data. There are LOTS of built in "functions" but they
are not like applying a formula to a spreadsheet. But that is going to be true
for ANY database.

Denn Santoro
President
Resource Development Associates
http://www.RDAWorldWide.Com
Offices in the United States and Germany
Providing solutions to health care, business, governments and non-profits since
1982