Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

I have a file where the field in each record holds a sample value, in this case the number of stems in vegetation plots. For example: Record 1 - #stems = 0 Record 2 - # stems = 1 Record 3 - # stems = 0 Record 4 - # stems = 2 etc. As this data accumulates I would like to calculate the sample standard deviation as a running function. For example: Record 1 - #stems = 0 Record 2 - # stems = 1 - s[records 1 to 2] =1.4142 Record 3 - # stems = 1 - s[records 1 to 3] =1.0 Record 4 - # stems = 2 - s[records 1 to 4] =0.8164 etc. Unfortunately, the default standard deviation function in FM is only for all records. It only calculates the function for the…

Hi all. I'm new in here. I'm running FM Pro 8.5. I was hoping if you guys could assist me. How do I insert a text link (the full location of the file) rather than have it displayed just as a filename in the container? Can it be done in a Text Field? The 'Insert File' script does not do the job. Another question, when you have Inserted a File, How do I remove the inserted file only without having to delete the entire record?

I heard that using embedded images will bog down a database and slow it up. Right now I only have about 500 records in my organization's db, but its going to grow, so definitely I am concerned about this. Some people in my industry use a type of database software where you can store the image in a spreadsheet and have the program grab that image. Is something similiar possibly in filemaker and will that save my database from a sluggish fate?

OK, I've worked on this all afternoon and either I'm missing something or it can't be done. (My bet is I'm missing something. I want to have an Icon show on a record layout based on a date field in a related portal. That portal is on the same layout within a tab. Basically, Case( Interview_Date = Get ( CurrentDate);GetRepetition ( g_Interview Today Icon ; 1 ); GetRepetition ( g_Interview Today Icon; 2) ) I set up a calc field and a container field. If I put the Calc field on the portal it works fine. But, if I put it on the contact record it does not. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Al

Howdy folks! Can't seem to get this one to work for me. I need to create a history of record modifications that are accessible to users. I know repeating fields are a bane and with a "Modification date" it just rolls over and I just keep falling over with my script - maybe I've been staring at the screen too long. What I am after is capture of duplicate Modification date entries ( I tried setting a portal but it always rolls over the top entry) and I want to keep atleast 10 of them. I have a unique serial number (calculated not FMP generated) and repeated need to update a record. All thoughts appreciated. thanks in advance Nic

Hi all, Seems to be a simple problem... I want to have a text field in a table that contains a date formatted a certain way. For example, if I enter 01/01/2007 in FieldA (data type:date), I wish to auto enter in FieldB (data type:text) "January 1, 2007". Is there something I'm missing or do I have to break down the date via a calculation into the month name and so on... Thanks for your input. Darryl

I am developing in FM 8.5 Advanced. I have tried to use the "Windownames" function and it perpetually comes up blank. I turned on the "Evaluate If Empty" option but that doesnt seem to help. I used the function in a calc as follows: windownames(get(filename) ). And after all kinds of iterations with options on and off, defining it as a global and then as a minimally indexed calc, etc etc. I STILL get an empty window. When I try the VERY same formula in a new file, it works. What is going on?

Why aren't my table occurrences showing up? I'm trying to generate a Looked-up Value for a particular field and the 'starting with' table occurrence I want and need doesn't appear in the drop down list. I'm 100% sure it there and when I look for it as if I was going to create a Calculated Value it shows up in the drop down list there.

ok, I am sure that question has been asked a billion times and there are probably a billion threads on the subject. I searched, I PROMISE, so please don't slam me too hard if I violated the Thread Rule. I need to know the difference in days only between two dates. I would like to have a positive # regardless if Datefield 1 is older or newer than Datefield 2. Thoughts? And again, I apologize if I should not have posted this question. Thanks

What is the reference data used to search mileage proximities from a given point? I see store and restaurant web sites allowing searches of their business locations within set mileage distances. What is the basis for that search or find capability?

Hi there, It must be simple but I can't figure out how to create a field that will display the computer clock. I made a few attempts but ... Any help?

Hello, I've run up against a snag. I'm working on a database that monitors experiments done in the lab. We run gels with lanes in them and I'm trying to create a counter that automatically enters the lane numbers. There are 2 tables in the database (gel info, samples). The first is general information about the gel (date, employee,...) and a gel#. This gel# is what links the two tables. The second table has the gel# and then lane# and sample name. So when someone enters a new gel record there is a portal on the layout for the "sample" table. I want the lane# field to start with 1 when a new record is created. Then on the next line of the portal, ie sample …

Hello, I must have missed something: Can't FM create new fields on the fly? E.g., I have a field, SWCourses, that displays a "checkbox-able" list of s/w course names. What I'd like FM to do is when a user checks an item, a new field, SWblank(n), where n is the item name, appears next to the item that was checked. THAT field has five values. So it might look like this: X C programming O O O O O C# programming X Java programming O O O O O X PHP programming O O O O O Any help is appreciated. I don't see what I'm missing. Thanks. Steve

Hi all, I am new to FM (ex-Access) and have problem calculating Canadian GST Tax (7% before Aug 01 2006 and 6% after Aug 01 2006), based on the date field "Proposal Date"(formatted as 12/25/2003) . I tried the following 2 ways: If ( Proposal Date < 8/1/2006 ; 1.07 ; 1.06 ) and Case ( Proposal Date < 8/1/2006 ; 1.07 ; Proposal Date > 8/1/2006 ; 1.06 ; 1.06) I am always getting back "1.06", what am I doing wrong? Or is there a totally different way to accomplish this? Any help really appreciated, Emilio

Hi all Can someone help me out how to solve this problem, please?. I have datefield_1 and datefield_2 which contains different dates. What I want is the data of datefield_2 to overwrite the data in datefield_1 if it is newer than the data in datefield_1. Hope my question makes sense : Regards, Lasse

I need help with a summary calculation. I have a summary report for design jobs in progress that totals all the time and expenses to date, minus any invoices against that job. However, the developer of the form did not program it to subtract deposit invoices, which I need to do to be accurate. There are not many deposit invoices made, maybe 10% of jobs, and rarely are there two made against the same job, but I still need that function to have an accurate assessment. Here is calculation for the summary: If(Record Type Code = "B";Quantity;GetAsNumber("")) What the best add the deposits to this summary? I hope this is enough of an explanation; I know very li…

I'm having a little problem completing a graphic interface I have a start time and end time The graphic displays the start and end time I have managed to display the hours ... but want to refine it to the quarter hour. i have managed to work out a way of doing it (by hard coding the results 0 to 4 (x:00=0, x:15=2, x:30=3, x:45=4)... but can not get my calc to work. (notes in calculation) I will further refine it by changing the calc by rounding the minutes to the quarter hour after resolving this. I would also like to put the left and right graphic on either end of the time block ... but will tackle this afterwards Any help would be grea…

I'm trying to calculate a sum with two relationships. This is my database structure: *Database - x --Fields: total activity (calculation: Sum(activity::activity time total) job id staff name ---Relationship: activity, jobid::jobid *Database - activity --Fields: activity time total job id staff name So I have a table in x database that displays: job id, staff name, total activity So far i have the records showing the total time of that job id. I would like it to show the total time where jobid …

I know FMP7 does not have a simple way to format a phone field (North American). Is there a plugin or some EASY to use examples to format these and other fields like SS numbers? I have putting off this project for a long time. Does FMP8 have this functionality?

This seems trivial, but... I am having a little difficulty with a script that is intended to examine the contents of a field, and if it is "A", add 1 to a field in a related record, if it is "B", add 1 to another field in a related record, etc.. Basically I am making a counter script to record the number of times a particular value occurs in a field, that I can run on a found subset of my main table. However, I am having a little trouble creating the calculation. Does anyone know how to do this? Marcel

Hi, I have a table with a large number of records, and a field called "result". Result can have one of 8 different possible values. I would like to create a field that automatically adds up how many records in the table have value1, value2, ... value8 in the field "result". So, I created a global field for each potential value in the field result (g_value1, g_value2, ...g_value8) , created 8 additional instances of the table, and linked them to the original table by relating the "g_valueX" fields to "result" in the original table. I then created fields that count all records, calculated from the perspective of table instance 2, instance 3, ...instance 8. The…

Hello, I have a question about a calculation saved as a container. I have the following calc that works fine on a PC but does nothing on a mac. Any ideal what I need to change for the mac side to work? I have tried smb://, file://, and filemac:// but no luck. If ( Get ( SystemPlatform ) = "-1"; "file://" & uploadlink1 ; "filewin://" & uploadlink1 ) Thanks in advance

Hello, I've searched around, but I haven't found a solution for my problem. I need to be able to find the unknown in an equation when all other variables are known. for example: if A+B=C and I know B and C, I want A to automatically calculate. The tricky part is that I'm hoping to be able to have the A,B, and C fields empty and typing the values into any two will produce a result in the third. For example: Fields A, B, and C are blank. If I type 2 into Field A and 5 into Field C, Field B will show 3. If I delete the 5 from Field C and put a 4 in Field B, I want Field C to automatically show 6. Is this possible? If not, is there a close workaround?…

I have* a flat file, tracking sales, with fields like Date, State, Salesperson, Item, etc. I frequently find myself doing a search on some single criterion (e.g. all sales by a particular salesperson), and sorting on a second criterion, e.g. State (by viewing in Table view and just clicking on the column header). What I want to do is add a summary function that tells me how many "groups" are produced as a result of the Sort. So, for example, if I sort by State, I want to know: how many unique States are in this sorted found set? If I sort by Date, I want to know: how many unique Dates are in this sorted found set? etc. I found an old discussion (about …

Hello everybody, this is my very first post here I've got a container field with an audio file and I'd like to open it with an audio editor. In osx it's not a problem since the send event script allows me to specify the app; in win it's not so easy because the document is opened with the default app. How can I do that without changing the default app? Thank you.

Is there a good way to combine two lists (in the sense of the List function, i.e. a CR-delimited list of text values) and also de-dup them? Order doesn't matter. So if I started with: blue red yellow and green blue red I'd want to end up with blue red yellow green I can combine the two with the List function, but that doesn't remove the duplicates. And no, it wouldn't be super easy to put these into a ValueList, I know that would de-dup. I'm guessing the answer is a custom function. Anyone got one like this? Thanks!

I need to set the content of a field based on a checkbox selection. For example, I have a field with checkboxes from a value list, think seven dwarfs. If Grumpy is checked, alone or in combination with other dwarfs, I need to set the content of a text field to "Put your happy eyes on". I can do that with a Case function, but I either get the text when any dwarf is checked, or when Grumpy is checked alone. I'm looking for a calculation like Case(Dwarf Includes but is not limited to "Grumpy"; "Put your happy eyes on";... Any ideas?

I have a container filed where I store images (referenced) that are located in a folder within the folder that contains the FMP DB. How do I store these images in the container field with a relative path so I can move the main DB folder without disturbing the paths. Right now, if I move the main folder around I loose the referenced connection.

I am using the *send Email* script step in FM 8.5. Here is the situation... I have a file that contains a bunch of reports. As reports get completed, a script makes a PDF file of the report and stores it in a designated folder. I am trying to make a script that will create an email that contains all the pdf's that were made that week. I got the whole thing working except I can't figure out how to attach more than one file to the email... The pdf's are named after a product code in the report, so I need to use a variable in the file path to pick up the files and attach them to the email. So in the *specify file dialogue box* I've got a file path to one of t…

Good morning, can anyone tell me how to save a record as pdf, with the filename being a calculation. I know it has something to do with setting a variable ($$Name), but thats as far as I get. Thanks

I'm sure this is going to be a "duh" when I get the answer, but I'm having total brain lock on this one. I have a summary report of therapist stats subdivided by month, with summary fields totaling how many notes were rejected by supervisor, rejected by QA, were unbillable, etc. There is also a calc field, note_problem, which returns 1 if any of the various possible problems is present in a given note. I want a summary of what percentage of their notes for the month have problems. For example, if a therapist did 50 notes in January, and 12 of them had problems, the Percent_Problems field would return 24%. Fiddling around with summary fields and the Sum f…

Is there any speed differences between using a summary field verses a calculation that uses aggregate functions such as count and sum? What are the pluses and minues of using either way? If I end up using the seperation model I think that summaries are the way to go because its less relationships for the data file because I can just use summary fields with relationships I make with the layout file. Is this your experience?

OK, I am completely mystified... Tables 1 and 2 in my database are related by a field called sampleId (ie, table1::sampleID = Table2::sampleID). Each table also has the text field "patientID", which does not participate in the relationship. In Table1, both sampleID and patientID are entered manually. Problem: In Table2, I would like to have patientID automatically update to be the value of patientID in the related record from Table1. Seems simple. In table2, I defined patientID to be an auto-enter calculation from this field in table1. However, the entry in table 2 stubbornly remains blank despite a non-empty field in table 1. I tested the relationship betwe…

Hello, I am brand new to Filemaker, and am still learning a lot of the basics. I am currently having an issue with something I am sure is very rudimentary. I have Filemaker version 8.5, and the best way I can describe my issue is this: If you go into Filemaker 8.5 and pick the Business-Finance/Purchase Orders template, and then go to the List View Layout, I am trying to recreate that layout. My issue is, unlike the template, when I reach the last field and hit tab, it does not create a second record on the line below...it goes back and writes over the existing line. I have examined as many properties I could think of in the template layout to try and figure out …

I am trying to find a way to lock database record fields in a layout for a work management system I have created so that when a certain field is completed with a YES value (a quality control field in the database), that the other fields in the record layout I am using will not be able to be altered. I guess this is a script function of some kind. I appreciate any help or guidance anyone can give me. Thanks.