Access

Access domain aggregate functions for geometric, harmonic, and quadratic means

Ease of Use

Easy

Version tested with

2003 

Submitted by:

matthewspatrick

Description:

Access has a domain aggregate function DAvg to calculate the arithmetic mean for some set of numbers. The UDFs described in this article may be used to provide similar domain aggregate support for other means, such as the geometric, harmonic, and quadratic means. 

Discussion:

In some circumstances, means other than the usual arithmetic means are called for. For example, when faced with a series of annual rates of return, to compute the "average" rate for the whole period, you should use the geometric mean and not the arithmetic mean. A harmonic mean should be used whenever you need to get an "average" for a series of ratios. For example, when computing the overall resistance of a series of parallel electrical resistors, the result is the harmonic mean (which will always be less than the arithmetic mean). Lastly, a quadratic mean (or root mean square) should be used for periodic data (i.e., over time, a graph describes a sine curve), or when both positive and negative data are included, and what you seek is an "average distance from zero" for the various data points. 

Code:

instructions for use

			

Option Compare Database Option Explicit Function DGeomMean(FieldName As String, SourceObject As String, Optional Criteria As String = "") ' This function requires a reference to Microsoft DAO ' ' Function to provide geometric mean "domain aggregate" functionality in Access ' Geometric mean = (a1 * a2 * a3 * ... aN) ^ (1 / n) ' ' It is strongly recommended that users wrap field and table/query names in all three arguments ' in square brackets; this is a requirement if the field/table/query names have spaces or punctuation ' ' If no records match the criteria supplied, then the function returns Null (similar to other ' domain aggregates except for DCount). Also, if any single element is less ' than zero, function returns Null Dim rs As DAO.Recordset Dim Product As Double Dim Counter As Long Dim SQL As String ' Open recordset SQL = "SELECT " & FieldName & " FROM " & SourceObject & IIf(Criteria = "", "", " WHERE " & Criteria) Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(SQL) Product = 1 ' Loop through recordset, building the product of the elements in the aggregation and incrementing ' the count of elements Do Until rs.EOF Product = Product * rs(0) Counter = Counter + 1 rs.MoveNext Loop rs.Close Set rs = Nothing ' If the count of elements is >0 then compute; else return Null If Counter > 0 And Product >= 0 Then DGeomMean = Product ^ (1 / Counter) Else DGeomMean = Null End Function Function DPowerMean(FieldName As String, SourceObject As String, Power As Double, _ Optional Criteria As String = "") ' This function requires a reference to Microsoft DAO ' ' Function to provide generalized power mean "domain aggregate" functionality in Access ' For derivation of power mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_mean ' ' Power means include: ' arithmetic mean (Power = 1) -- of course, just use DAvg for this one! ' harmonic mean (Power = -1) ' quadratic mean (Power = 2) ' ' It is strongly recommended that users wrap field and table/query names in all three arguments ' in square brackets; this is a requirement if the field/table/query names have spaces or punctuation ' ' If no records match the criteria supplied, then the function returns Null (similar to other ' domain aggregates except for DCount). In addition, if the user supplies zero for the Power ' argument, or if Power is negative and any element in the aggregation is zero, then the function also ' returns Null (as any of those conditions will introduce a division by zero) ' ' You cannot use this function for the geometric mean, as the geometric mean is the limit of the generalized ' mean as Power approaches zero Dim rs As DAO.Recordset Dim RunningSum As Double Dim Counter As Long Dim SQL As String ' Initialize function return vaue to Null DPowerMean = Null SQL = "SELECT " & FieldName & " FROM " & SourceObject & IIf(Criteria = "", "", " WHERE " & Criteria) Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(SQL) ' From this point on, any errors are going to be division by zero errors as noted in the comments above On Error Goto Cleanup ' Loop through recordset, building the running sum of the elements in the aggregation raised to the appropriate ' exponent and incrementing the count of elements Do Until rs.EOF RunningSum = RunningSum + rs(0) ^ Power Counter = Counter + 1 rs.MoveNext Loop ' If count >0 then compute the result; otherwise let the Null stand If Counter > 0 Then DPowerMean = (RunningSum / Counter) ^ (1 / Power) On Error Goto 0 Cleanup: rs.Close Set rs = Nothing End Function

How to use:

  1. From Access, hit Alt+F11 to get to the VB Editor
  2. Insert a new regular module into the VB Project (NOT a class module!)
  3. Paste the code above into your project
  4. Use the functions DGeomMean and DPowerMean in your queries, reports, forms, or VBA code as desired
 

Test the code:

  1. Download the attached archive, and extract the Access file contained in it
  2. Open that Access file (Special Domain Aggregates.mdb)
  3. Run the queries qryGeometricMean, qryHarmonicMean, and qryQuadraticMean for demonstrations of how to use the functions
 

Sample File:

Special Domain Aggregates.zip 24.62KB 

Approved by mdmackillop


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