BlackBerry Forums Support Community

shanezam203 · 08-31-2005, 12:25 AM

Hey I have a 7520 with Nextel and for a few months Ive been looking for a loan calculator similar to the one that comes on the 830/860. I just want to punch in loan amount, interest and term. And have it determine the payment amount, and if possible the amount of interest paid.

Sounds like a real simply program, I just cant get my hands on one. Anyone have a loan calc for the bb?
Thanks, Shane

ABuehrlen · 08-31-2005, 01:40 AM

id like to have one too if you find one please let me know

PingGuy · 08-31-2005, 11:38 AM

I haven't found one yet either, which is a bummer. I had a nice one on my i90c and I do miss it. I'd consider writing one but realistically I don't think I'll have time. Everything else I've wanted to write ended up falling off the table so I'm sure this would too.

Still if I do start writing one I'll post here to let you know.

Milkman · 08-31-2005, 11:55 AM

What about bookmarking a site with your HTML browser? There are tons of HTML calcs out there.

shanezam203 · 09-01-2005, 10:20 AM

thats what Ive done. so far works fine, just wondering if there is an icon I can get for the bb that will work offline.
thanks

PingGuy · 09-01-2005, 11:08 AM

This was bugging me yesterday after I posted so I started looking into it. I have a basic app put together but it's not functional yet. I'm having some problems with the math and some of the screen functions. I honestly don't know how much time I will be able to put into it from here but I'll see what I can do.

If it does end up working it will only calculate the monthly payment, it won't actually put together a pay schedule or anything. Still I am hoping it will work. I'll update you when I know more.

shanezam203 · 09-01-2005, 11:46 AM

That'd be fine. Let me know if you come up with anything. Thanks much for the time and effort. Let me know if I can help any, Shane

PingGuy · 09-01-2005, 12:23 PM

I figured out the math part but it's still buggy and needs some work. I have attached what I have so far.

Currently you can only enter a whole number for the interest rate and loan amount but I'm working on that. You should use the enter key to submit the form rather than the trackwheel for now. Not that it doesn't work but that it pops up a menu and I haven't figured out yet how to stop that.

I honestly haven't even tested the accuracy yet, I'm more worried about working out the bugs. Feel free to use it and let me know anythng you run into. Bugs may or may not be fixed based upon how much time I have. Enjoy!

EDIT: I fixed a few things and uploaded a new attachment. Now you can put decimals in the interest and loan amount fields. Also clicking the trackwheel works for submitting the form now.

EDIT #2: So it looks like the math is still wrong which makes this pretty useless at the moment. I'll look into it more when I have time.

EDIT #3: The math problem was stupidity on my part, it's fixed and I was able to check the results against an online calculator. I've updated the attachment again, have fun.

EDIT #4: I have removed the attachment here and posted a newer version farther down this thread.

The Cutenss · 09-01-2005, 03:46 PM

It works perfect! Thanks

PingGuy · 09-01-2005, 04:17 PM

I'm glad you enjoy it, thanks.

Just some more info for anybody who uses it:

The Month field is limited to integers only so you shouldn't have any problem there but the interest rate and loan amount fields are wide open so if you accidently type a letter or non-numeric character in there it could crash. I didn't put any error checking in because the original build used a field that limited it to numbers, plus, minus and period. Unfortunately that field type is bugged and behaves the same way as the integer field so I had to open it up to all characters to allow floating point numbers to be entered.

For some reason once you calculate a payment and then exit the program it asks if you want to save changes. Saving or Discarding has no effect on anything so don't worry which you pick. I'm working on fixing this one but it might be a while.

If you run into any other issues just let me know, I'll try to fix what I can. As for improving it, that depends on how much free time I end up with and whether or not my java skills fail me.

PingGuy · 09-01-2005, 06:08 PM

Another bug, it's truncating the number instead of rounding it so beware of the awol penny.

I'll look into that and some of the other bugs tomorrow night.

PingGuy · 09-02-2005, 03:34 PM

I've cleaned up most of the issues listed above, except for error checking. I plan to upload a full release version (1.0) either tonight or over the weekend. It will have additional features such as a choice between years/months, and a display of the total amount of interest paid.

I'll post again when it's ready.

shanezam203 · 09-04-2005, 12:05 PM

Ping Guy thanks a lot for the app. I will download it and give it a shot, I really appreciate the time, and knolege. Wish I could do something like that. What do you do for a living?
Thanks again, Shane

PingGuy · 09-06-2005, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shanezam203

Ping Guy thanks a lot for the app. I will download it and give it a shot, I really appreciate the time, and knolege. Wish I could do something like that. What do you do for a living?
Thanks again, Shane

You are welcome, I've had a bit of fun and learned alot while building it anyway. I changed my plans a bit though, instead of releasing a full version today I will be releasing what I hope is the final pre-release version. Many of the bugs have been fixed and it now shows the total interest payed. It will crash if you put multiple decimal points in the Interest Rate or Loan Amount fields, just FYI.

As for me, I've been working in computers professionally for 14 years although I've dabbled with programming for 18 years. Currently I'm a LAN Administrator but I also do some minor Java programming, a little C/C++ and recently some Windows Script Host. Suprisingly though this is my first real BlackBerry app but I do hope to write more in the future.

So here is BlackBerry LoanCalc 0.9 (Pre-Release), I won't feel comfortable going to 1.0 until I have a real icon for the ribbon and all of the bugs are worked out. So we may be at 0.9 for a while but I think it has enough functionality and stability to get you through what you need to do. Please report any bugs you find in this thread, thanks!

EDIT: Removed 0.9 download, please use 1.0 farther down this thread.

shanezam203 · 09-06-2005, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PingGuy

As for me, I've been working in computers professionally for 14 years although I've dabbled with programming for 18 years. Currently I'm a LAN Administrator but I also do some minor Java programming, a little C/C++ and recently some Windows Script Host. Suprisingly though this is my first real BlackBerry app but I do hope to write more in the future.

Thank you again for the time put into it. I have taken a C++ class, and html and dream weaver... I like programming a little, but didn’t take any more classes beyond intro courses. I am graduating a tech school with a bachelor’s degree in E-Business in March. (Its a combination of computers and business)
Thanks again for the app, Shane

PingGuy · 09-06-2005, 12:38 PM

I've had a bit of a breakthrough today so 1.0 may not be as far off as I had thought. I finally have an icon, although it is supremely ugly. I fixed the save/discard/cancel issue too. With any luck I should have 1.0 done by tomorrow night. I'll keep you updated either way.

PingGuy · 09-08-2005, 11:25 AM

Alright, here it is. BlackBerry LoanCalc 1.0!

All known bugs are fixed, if you find more just let me know. If you think the icon is ugly you are probably right, please feel free to make a new one and submit it to me. I don't know the specifics of WxH needed for the icon, I just made a really small .PNG file and it happened to work. I've searched all over but couldn't find details on those specifics, if anybody knows them please feel free to post them.

Anyway that's enough of my babbling, download and enjoy.

boweadam · 09-08-2005, 02:04 PM

First of all, Thank you for making a basic loan calculator. It seems to work just fine. One thing that would be useful would be to have the ability to put in a payment and terms to find out what the total loan amount is. In my line of work we often have to work backwards like that. Thanks again for the program.

PingGuy · 09-08-2005, 04:15 PM

boweadam,

I'll add that to my list for future updates. Thanks for letting me know.

shanezam203 · 09-10-2005, 09:17 AM

PingGuy app works great. Thanks again for the time.
Shane