Counting searches on LIMS- COUNT and COUNT2.

The Perkins-Elmer Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) tracks all of the samples submitted to the AT&T Bell Laboratories Analytical Technology Department (52121). Database searches of past information are often required. In the LIMS supplied by Perkins-Elmer Corporation, the only database search permitted is a listing search. For example, "List all the customers who submitted samples this year." Often, a counting search is desired, e.g., "How many samples were submitted by each customer this year?" The only way to get the answer to this simple question is to generate a listing search, sort it, then manually count the number of entries for each customer. Two programs were written to overcome this shortfall. COUNT and COUNT2 are one and two dataset level counting search programs, respectively. This memorandum discusses the flow and use of both of these programs.