Re: Measurement Problem

On Sat, Mar 27, 2004 at 07:55:31PM -0700, Karl Timmermann wrote: > Hi, > > I am working on a PHP/MySQL solution to have a webpage where users can > rate cigars. I ran into a problem though. One variable that exists is > the length of the cigar. In the cigar world, the lengths are usually > written like 6 1/8" or 155 mm or 4 15/16" or 125 mm. I don't want to > make the length column in the database be a string with data like "6 > 1/8"" in it, because as the user submits cigars, different users could > type it a different way, screwing up searches that are searching by > length. I also want to have a real time metric conversion as well. > > So my question is, how should I do this? Should I have a float column > with the lengths as mm and it converts it to inches? If so, then how > would I convert 155.57500mm to 6 1/8", or 155mm to 6 1/8". It's hard to > explain, but I can't come up with a good solution. Please ask if you > need clarification. > > Any help is much appreciated! > > Thanks! > Karl > How about a drop down menu with valid lengths in them? That way you can control what the user enters. -- Jim Kaufman Linux Evangelist public key 0x6D802619 http://www.linuxforbusiness.net --- If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly. -- Ashleigh Brilliant