To give a measure of recording progress, and to indicate under-recorded areas, a recording scheme might wish to show the number of taxa (species) so far recorded within each monad, tetrad or hectad.
This FAQ outlines how to produce that count for monads (1km square). The resulting data might be presented in list form, or imported into a mapping package such as DMAP to produce a "Species Density Map".

The process can be broken down into four stages:

1) Construction of a "Table" query which is needed to generate statistics
2) Creation of a Select List of relevant records to be analysed
3) Running the Table report against the Select List of records
4) Cleaning up file for use.

1) Creating the Table  - Countmonad

Follow Main Menu-Reports-Design Merges, forms etc-Tables
At Table Name type a suitable title: eg COUNTMONAD
Title field can be used to display a description of the Table's action
eg Count the number of taxa present within each monad in a select list of records.

Complete the remaining fields as follows:

Table from which to read data to tabulate  RECORDS
Field to sort col. STATUS            Format L#5
Field to print       STATUS            Title  Status
Number of spaces between columns   1
Field to sort row  GET_1KM         Format L#8
Field to print       GET_1KM         Title  Monad
Type on information in cells V      (Press F2 for options to select "V")
Field to summarise in cells  SPECIES
Justification (L/R)          L
Character denoting empty cell  0
Include Column total(Y/N)?     Yes        Include Row total(Y/N)? Yes
Include Grand total(Y/N)?        Yes

Press F9 to save Table.

(Simply copy this Table and replace GET_1KM with GET_TETRAD to create a second Table which counts the number of taxa on a Tetrad basis)

2) Creation of a Select List of Records

This stage is obviously dependant upon the type of data to be analysed. For example, to analyse all valid vascular plant records collected since the start of 1987, go to Main Menu-Reports-Record Selection and complete the window as follows:

Date Range 1987-
Taxa 09   press F2 to select "T" for taxon.
Record Status C
Include Confidential records Y
Press F9 to run report

at Record Display option, select Option 7  "Generate a Table"
at Table Definitions select the Table created earlier ie Countmonads
press Enter when prompted to "Enter or edit Title"
Change the output destination to "File"  and press Enter to run.

(If you create a Select List with more complicated criteria, perhaps using EasyWriter, you will need to find and activate your Select List before running the Table created above. The best way to activate that Select List is to follow Main Menu-Filters-Query Table, then select the appropriate row.)

4) Cleaning up file for use

The output from the Table report contains a duplicated field. This needs to be removed before the statistics can be used. The file can be opened as a text file in MS Word, and Find/Replace used to select and delete the characters   "   |1"  throughout the file. Alternatively open the text file in Excel and use the import wizard to open the file in Fixed Width format. Use the wizard to ensure the duplicated characters are loaded into separate columns. Once opened, duplicate columns can be deleted. From here the data can be sent to a word processor, or prepared for use in a mapping programme such as DMAP.

Nick Moyes

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