Forum Discussion

KristiePeeters's avatar
KristiePeeters
Qrew Member
12 years ago

Is there a formula within Quickbase that would calculate the miles from one point to another if the latitude and longitude were supplied for two locations?

17 Replies

  • I'm sure that Kristi got more than she expected, in terms of discussion when she posted her question.
  • Mark, this solution worked great!   Thanks for providing this information to the QB community.   

    Jim
  • I am wondering why Quickbase hasn't developed more original formulas, like sin, cos, tan, which are supported by most high school student calculators.

    The business motivation for Quickbase: most tiny companies are using Excel to manage their business. To encourage them to switch over from Excel to Quickbase, Quickbase should can cover most abilities that Excel can do. Numerical formula is one weakness for Quickbase to catch up.

    Develop more formulas shouldn't be difficult. It could take one programmer only few hours or up to few days, including updating documents.

    • _anomDiebolt_'s avatar
      _anomDiebolt_
      Qrew Elite
      I concur, QuickBase has not expanded their formula functions enough over the years.

      The other day I needed a simple Bessel function for my application:



      I spent hours searching the forum and reading the formula documentation and no Bessel Function was found. How can you run a modern business without Bessel Functions?

      Then I remembered I had created a new technique called OEH (On Error HTML) which basically allows you to write a formula that can call arbitrary JavaScript (without using a code page). Since JavaScript allows you to do anything all your problems are solved.

      Next, I remembered that I already wrote a formula for sin(x) in a prior post:

      Text Formula Field with Some HTML allowed:
      "<img src onerror='this.outerHTML=Math.sin(" & ToText() & ")'>"

      Next, I remembered that I created a bunch of demos of the OEH technique:

      Record Counter, Sin(x), Word Count, Prime Number Calculator
      https://haversineconsulting.quickbase.com/db/bm5f3b6ra?a=td

      Cumulative Sum
      https://haversineconsulting.quickbase.com/db/bnab4bvkv

      Finally I woke up from my dream and asked "what planet am I on?" To my horror I realized I was on Earth and QuickBase technology had not yet evolved to the point where the formula language was replaced with JavaScript until 2018. How am I going to ever get off this planet without native Bessel functions in QuickBase to calculate my trajectory back home?

    • MinZheng's avatar
      MinZheng
      Qrew Trainee
      Thank you for sharing the same common feeling. Can anybody here reach R&D guys in Quickbase on this? Or there will never be a cure.
    • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
      QuickBaseCoachD
      Qrew Captain
      I recently put in a pitch to an Engineer to have them expose the Geocoding to us on an address record and then to do that distance math.  But that was just talking to one engineer.

      Right now the only formal communcation method is User Voice.