Storing Formulas - Database

[Brian P. Hammer]

All - I have a project that has a bunch of formulas. I would like to store
each of the formulas in a SQL and then load them and have my app execute it.
The problem I see is that a Dataset would return the formula as a string and
not as a result. Anyone have an idea on how I could accomplish this?

Example: If I wanted to store ((5+15)-9)*10 in SQL. I want to display the
answer 111 in a text box and not ((5+15)-9)*10

Thanks,
Brian

[Homer J Simpson]

"Brian P. Hammer" <Br*********@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:%2****************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

All - I have a project that has a bunch of formulas. I would like to
store each of the formulas in a SQL and then load them and have my app
execute it. The problem I see is that a Dataset would return the formula
as a string and not as a result. Anyone have an idea on how I could
accomplish this?

Example: If I wanted to store ((5+15)-9)*10 in SQL. I want to display the
answer 111 in a text box and not ((5+15)-9)*10

What you need is an EXEC function - a function which can treat a string as a
line of code and compute it. You could write your own interpreter but you
will not enjoy that - see "The dragon book" (Compilers: Principles,
Techniques and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman) if you
don't believe me. You may find it easier to use an Excel spreadsheet to do
this. Another approach is a parser subroutine - see
http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/FastMathParser.asp which might work OK.