Re: Conditional in table formula with times

["Sebastien Vauban" <sva-news-D0wtAvR13HarG/iDocfnWg@public.gmane.org>]

"Loris Bennett" wrote:
> "Sebastien Vauban" <sva-news-D0wtAvR13HarG/iDocfnWg@public.gmane.org> writes:
>> "Loris Bennett" wrote:
>>> "Sebastien Vauban" writes:
>>>> "Loris Bennett" wrote:
>>>>> I'm trying to keep track of total time spend at work, but I am having
>>>>> trouble with a conditional in table formula:
>>>>>
>>>>> | *Day*            | *Came* | *Went* | *Worked* | *Required* |   *Diff* |
>>>>> |------------------+--------+--------+----------+------------+----------|
>>>>> | [2014-01-06 Mon] |   8:00 |  17:00 | 09:00:00 |   00:00:00 | 09:00:00 |
>>>>> | [2014-01-07 Tue] |        |        | 00:00:00 |   00:00:00 | 00:00:00 |
>>>>> | [2014-01-08 Wed] |   8:10 |  16:30 | 08:20:00 |   00:00:00 | 08:20:00 |
>>>>> | [2014-01-09 Thu] |   7:55 |  17:05 | 09:10:00 |   00:00:00 | 09:10:00 |
>>>>> | [2014-01-10 Fri] |   8:00 |  17:05 | 09:05:00 |   00:00:00 | 09:05:00 |
>>>>> #+TBLFM: $4=$3-$2;T::$5=if($4 > 0,"8:18:00","00:00:00");T::$6=$4-$5;T
>>>>>
>>>>> Can anyone enlighten me as to why I get "00:00:00" in the first case?
>>>>
>>>> Just wanted to mention that, for this type of task, you probably should
>>>> have a look at the "clocking" mechanisms (C-c C-x C-i and the like), and
>>>> use them to generate tables like the above, or bills for clients, etc.
>>>>
>>>> Using proper clocking brings you many advantages, whose main (IMO) is
>>>> the "clock check" feature, where you can check that you don't have
>>>> unintended clocking gaps during the day, nor clocking overlap...
>>>
>>> I do already use clocking for certain areas of activity.  However, I
>>> would need "nested" clocking, i.e. a clock for "at work/not at work"
>>> which I can clock into at the beginning of the day an out of at the end
>>> of the day and within that the ability to clock into to and out of
>>> various activities.  Is that possible?
>>
>> I do have personal tasks into personal.org, and work tasks in work.org
>> (and many others).
>>
>> Those files have FILETAGS (set to :personal: and :work:) so that I don't
>> have to manually tag every section, etc.
>>
>> Then, in your clocktable, you can include/exclude clock information
>> based on the tag.
>>
>> So, yes, what you ask seems possible to me!
>
> OK, so I would clock into a generic ":office:" activity, which might be
> interrupted by ":programming:", ":bofhing:", ":meeting:", ":lunch:" and
> ":snooze:".  I would then create a clock table including ":office:",
> ":programming:", ":bofhing:" and ":meeting:", but excluding ":lunch:"
> and ":snooze:".

Best is that you clock into such tasks:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* Work                                                 :work:

** TODO Read and reply to emails

** TODO Meetings

** TODO Write report

* Personal                                            :personal:

(Do you really want to clock personal stuff?  You can, though)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Then, you can generate a clocktable view for all your :work: activities.

> But would this approach allow me to do stuff like subtracting how long I
> should have spent at work each day, so that I can work out how much
> overtime I have?

I think, but I'm not sure, that you could name the clocktable view, and
access some of its fields. If so, then, you could make your substract in
a summary table.

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban