Spouses dates in the duplicates box

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 26 Jan 2006 09:44

I usually work on my diagrams with Show Duplicates rather than Show Spouses pressed, mainly because it takes up less width to show a family of siblings and their spouses so I'm more likely to be able to see the whole family. When I have multiple spouses, I don't want the persons name and dates more than once, so I found the Text tab in Diagram Options, picked Duplicate, and changed %INDI.NAME% to (%_INSTANCE_%), and removed =LifeDates(%INDI%). That works fine, I get (2) and (3) above the later spouses names, but my problem is I don't seem to be able to show each spouses dates correctly. The Descendant box has (for example) {if female & no spouses & duplicates} =LifeDates(%INDI.~SPOU>%). If I use that in the duplicates I get the dates of the first spouse for all subsequent spouses. Surprisingly, the same is true if I use =LifeDates(%INDI.~SPOU[_INSTANCE_]>%), although =LifeDates(%INDI.~SPOU[2]>%) gives me the dates of the second spouse in all subsequent ones. I've also tried =LifeDates(%FAM.HUSB>%) which leaves the dates blank for second and subsequent spouses, and =LifeDates(%INDI.FAMS[_INSTANCE_]>HUSB>%) which always gives me the first, though =LifeDates(%INDI.FAMS[2]>HUSB>%) works for the second but not of course subsequent ones. I feel I'm thrashing around in the dark here... is there an explanation somewhere of how these text templates are supposed to work? Or better still, has anybody managed to deduce an expression for this already?

ID:1306

pricero1 · Post by **pricero1** » 26 Jan 2006 14:23

I don't have a solution, I'm afraid, but I do have exactly the same problem.
.........Robin

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 26 Jan 2006 14:29

Thanks for that, I was beginning to think I was going barmy

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 26 Jan 2006 17:29

I suspect you need to use FAM rather than INDI code.

If you look at the example for the duplicates it uses

{if male & no spouses} Sp. %FAM.WIFE>NAME:PREFERRED%
{if female & no spouses} Sp. %FAM.HUSB>NAME:PREFERRED%

So for dates have you tried
=LifeDates()
{if male & no spouses} Sp dates. =LifeDates(%FAM.WIFE%)
{if female & no spouses}
Sp dates. =LifeDates(%FAM.HUSB%)

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 26 Jan 2006 17:37

Yep, tried that, I just get the dates left blank.

Tombaston · Post by **Tombaston** » 26 Jan 2006 21:39

Try
{if female & no spouses} %FAM.HUSB>BIRT.DATE%-%FAM.HUSB>DEAT.DATE%

and the equivalent for if male

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 27 Jan 2006 05:58

Thanks, well, yes, that sort of works... I certainly get the birth and death dates for the right husbands in the right boxes, but not in the right format, and it doesn't do what the LifeDates function does in picking up the baptism or burial dates where birth and death dates are missing. What I don't understand is, that since FAM.HUSB clearly returns the right person, why is =LifeDates(%FAM.HUSB>%) always blank?

Post by **SimonOrde** » 27 Jan 2006 09:41

Chris & Others

>> What I don't understand is, that since FAM.HUSB clearly returns the right person, why is =LifeDates(%FAM.HUSB>%) always blank? <<

It's a bug I'm afraid. You're quite right - it should work. Essentially the bug is that at present, F.H. never passes a reference to a family record to a function used in a text scheme. This will be fixed in version 3.

Given that you're been trying to do the right things, you've probably worked this out by now but just to make things clearer (I hope): each box in a diagram is potentially associated with 1 Individual record and 1 Family record. I say 'potentially' because there doesn't have to be a Family record. There won't be one if the person has no spouse, or if you're not showing spouse info in the diagram; but otherwise there will. Even if you're showing spouses in their own boxes, *both* boxes will be associated with the same family record (tho' of course each is associated with a different Individual record). This is why when you use the Data Reference Assistant dialog to insert a data reference into a text scheme, you can select items for either an Individual or a Family.

If you use a data reference for an Individual (one that starts '%INDI...') you can access all of the person's spouse info and family records; but there's no way of ensuring that you're getting details from the right family record (i.e. the one that is associated with the box in the diagram). Which is why, in text schemes, you need to use family record data references (i.e. use ones that start '%FAM...'), as these are interpreted in terms of the family record associated with the box. Hope this makes sense.

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 27 Jan 2006 09:47

Thanks for that, hope my version 3 arrives soon.

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