early spot plays

[Troy]

Hi all, I would like to put my spot plays in ahead of time, well before the race starts, my question is if im using MS access is it better to use the ratings, the factors that start with a "n" like the nHTR or nWKSC as opposed to the ranks the factors that start with an "r"

Thanks
Troy

[Rick]

Try them both.

You may also find that indexing some of the fields you use in most queries should speed up the running of the ROI report.

Add them one at a time and test.

I have found that you will reach a point where it doesn't do any good to add more indexes.

Besides that there is a limit on the total number of indexes in a table.

[DanG]

Hi all, I would like to put my spot plays in ahead of time, well before the race starts, my question is if im using MS access is it better to use the ratings, the factors that start with a "n" like the nHTR or nWKSC as opposed to the ranks the factors that start with an "r"
Thanks
Troy
Troy,

Check out this newsletter. Dec-2005...

http://www.homebased2.com/km/pdf/HTRMonthlyReport-DEC2005.pdf

Time well spent reading every last newsletter at least once. Try and keep a little notebook of the ones that really fit your game.

[Troy]

Rick, can you enlighten me on what you mean by indexing? Dan,I did read that article, thats what gave me the Idea to put my plays in early, I like that idea because I have to go to work early in the morning so If I stay up late playing the races it makes it real tough to get my butt out of bed in the morning;) There is alot of good info in those articles, I have been getting my studying in when I can.

Troy

[MikeDee]

Troy another piece of advice since you are new.

I assume that you don't have much data yet and spot plays can be very misleading when you don't have much past data. Things can look very good based on a small sample data set but end up not doing well going forward.

You might want to consider using a couple of the spot plays that were entered in the contest. They are based on a years worth of data and you know that they did meet some requirements based on min plays and win percents.

I would stay away from the ones with the very high number of filters. low win percents and have some big long shot prices in the mix. These are the ones that can have long losing streaks and a much lower probability of going forward.

[Rick]

You need to do some more reading.

You need to read up on indexing and Primary Keys.

We use a Primary Key of date, track, race and program # to keep duplicate records out of our tables.

It is a good idea to have a Primary Key on any table you keep adding data to. If you are just reusing the same table over and over daily for new data and keep deleting the records every day you can probably get by without using a Primary Key. It is still a good idea even then.

When exporting from HTR2 the exporter does not check for duplicates. You can keep exporting the same race over and over again and the exporter keeps adding the same data over and over again. Without a Primary Key Access would import multiple copies of the same race.

And now indexes.

Open the table in design view.

Hightlight the field you want to index. (This is in Access 2007)

Click on Design. Click on Indexes.

You should be able to see the Primary Key. Click on the first blank line. Enter a name for the index. Then under Field Name select the field you want to index. Select sort order. Primary should be no. Unique shoudl be no. Decide to ignore nulls or not.

As I recall in the earlier versions of Access there is an Index icon next to the Primary Key icon.

[Rick]

Easier way.

Open table in design view.

Click on field name you want to index.

Down in the bottom section of the screen under Field Properties, under General, look for Indexed. Click on it. There is a dropdown arrow. Click on the dropdown arrow.

Select Yes (duplicates allowed). Save table.

Run you report and time it. See if indexing this field helped it run faster.

You should time it without any indexes so you know if you are getting any improvement.

The fields in the Primary Key are already indexed.

[Troy]

Thanks Rick that was much easier.
Troy