Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

I am trying to figure out how to get the number of characters that are in a specific field. I would like to do this in a calculation to use with a case function. I could not find anyway of simply getting a count of characters in a field. Any help would be appreciated. thanks.

Hi, this may be easy but I cannot figure this out. I have a field that will contain a Fedex tracking number that will be entered by scanning the barcode on the FedEx label. The barcode contains 22 digits of which the last 15 are the tracking number that needs to be parsed. How would I setup a calculation to throw out the first 7 digits and keep the last 15 in the field? I would appreciate the help, thanks.

Hi. I'm running on a filemaker pro "Business productivity Solution" Template. It runs fine but I'm Having trouble auto updating my inventory quantity field using the quantity entered in the Sales order. Exemple: Original Inventory Qty = 10 Sales order Qty = 2 New Inventory Qty should be 8, but remains 10. Thanks for your help.

Hello, I have a database that tracks donations by donor and by the cause they donated to. I need to create a report that will show a specified month's total donations in one column and the summary of all prior donations in another column. Eventually I will have total balance column which would add those two fields together. I have created two global fields; ReportMonth and ReportYear that allows the user to select the month and year to print. I have created a calc field called RptMtDonations. It has this calculation:If(Year(Donation_Date) = ReportYear and MonthName(Donation_Date) = ReportMonth;Amount;" ")This returns the donations for specified month a…

Hi, I'm importing text via XML (through a hack, not through the regular FMP methods) in a way that can preserve the xml tags. My question--and this would apply to importing HTML, tags intact--is whether there's a way to change these tags into formatting information that FMP would recognize. So that italics would be italics. Bold would be bold, etc... The idea is that text that appears inside my text here could appear in italics. Thanks for any help. lmaury

Hi. This is probably so easy, but i'm just boggled right now. I have 2 tables, one for daily input and one for totals. the first table have event name, event date, cost per day per department etc... the second table has profit and totals. the department total field in the totals table needs to calculate the sum from cost per day per department when the event name is the same (some events run multiple days so i need to calculate the total per event). what is the easiest way to do this?

I am having a brain blurb- how do I convert a time (x:xx) into a decimal? I have a calc field that shows the time elapsed between two dates/times in hours:minutes. I need to count how many records have a time of less than 1 hour, between 1 and 3 hours, and over 3 hours. Thnx!

Greetings. I cannot find a way how FMP will automatically udates a date at midnight. I guess the Get(CurrentDate) only sets the date when a new record is generated. If anybody knows a way, I would appreciate to learn about it. Many thanks Greg

Hello everyone I am a novice filemaker user, and am putting together a DB that allows me to select a file and place the reference in a container field, then I have a calculation field that tells me the file path, what I need is a way to get the path minus the filename. any ideas? I have got the path formatted almost completed to what I want except for the filename always appearing and since the filename will always change and there is no pattern I don't know how to just have the path to the folder containing the file. Thanks, would greatly appreciate anyones help

Hello there. I've got a bit of a puzzle, maybe somebody has been through this situation and can help me out. Because frankly, I am stumped. I've created a large database in Spanish. Within the database is an intricate sequence of Date Fields and Calculation Fields (for Dates), displayed by Filemaker default in English. Up until now, this little detail has been of little to no consequence. However, I now need to print out some Records, and they have to have the Dates displayed in Spanish. For example, I need a Calculation Field result to display: "Marzo 11, 2005" Instead of: "Marzo 11, 2005" Is there a way to change the language? Thank you!

I've got a large text field that I'm using to enter numbers, like this: 4 5 5 2 6 I'm using a text field because it's the only one that seems to let me enter multiple numbers like this. However, it doesn't seem possible to do a SUM on all the numbers in that single text field. Is there a different field type I should be using for input? Or is there a different function that will add the numbers up for me?

I have a text field which contains a code that is in the format of M followed by 5 numbers, which varies in position in the field and the actual numbers vary as well eg. M80410, M60234 etc. I want to make a calculation that extracts just that code from the rest of the text in that field. I tried using: Middle(text field;Position(text field;"M#####";1;1);6) Trying PatternCount (text field;"M#####") failed as well. I then realised that the the wildcard # for numbers (and wildcards in general) didn't work in calculations. I can't figure out how to tell the middle function to look for an M followed by 5 numbers in the text field. Thanks for any …

Hello, I am pretty new to filemaker and I am trying to create a function that depending on the date a Text Field is formatted with different colors, if the date has not come yet, green, the date is todays date, yellow, or the date has allready passed, red. Is there some way to do this easily?

When viewing mulitple records is it possable to have differnt color fields in separate record?

Hi, I am not sure if calculations is the right post for this, but here goes. I have a drop down field with some selections. I have another field which is a radio button field. You don't always need to make a radio button selection, but when you choose a certain selection from the drop down I want to make it a Requirement that you must not leave the radio field open. Example: Drop down field has Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Orange Radio buttons have Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina Most of the time you aren't required to choose a state, but if you happen to select Green in the first field, then you have to choose a correspondi…

I'm starting to the an IF statement isn't what I need, but I can't find an answer in the help file. Here's what I'm trying to do: Field1 is a pulldown menu with two values [Yes] and [No]. I want Field2 to pull data from one of two other fields (Field3 and Field4), based on the value of Field1. Here is what I wrote: For Field2, the calculation reads: If ( Field1 = Yes ; Field3 ; If ( Field1 = No ; Field4) ) When I try to save it, it tells me that the field (Yes) and (No) can't be found. So I'm confused. If I had numbers, like 1 and 2, instead of Yes and No, it would work just fine. Is there a better way to do accomplish what I'm trying to do?

Hello, When an user is typing in a text field it automatically displays a carriage return when the user reaches the end of the field. I have a portal that references a field like that. When you are in Filemaker it displays with the same carriage returns, but when veiwed through IWP, the carriage returns are gone, unless you click in the field. Is there a way to format a field through a calculation to parse it out, and insert the carriage returns where applicabale?

I am having a problem with a summary equation that i'm using. Here is the problem. I have a layout page that views all the orders i enter each day. It is in list mode so i can see a summary of each job. In the Footer I have a Summary field that gives me the total cost of the orders. Then i have another field (also in the footer) that allows me to add a volume discount to the orders, such as %2 discount on the total. I then have another field(caculation) that multiplies the total due * the discount. The problem i'm running into is that my final caculation changes according to which record is selected in the body of the layout. So if the first record is highlighted it giv…

Hello everyone.. I've got a text field in a FM 8 file that contains the path to a file, each record has a different filename and the filenames are different lengths an example of one is C:Documents and SettingsJohn DoeDesktopFolder ImagesDCP_3034.jpg I would like to create a new calc field that pulls just the name of the image. Is there an easy way of doing that? Thanks Cory

I setup an index field which get's the values from a field of each records field that I've called "Title". This lets me see the titles of all the records in a handy pull-down menu. What I'd like to do is add some sort of script so that when I select a title in this pull-down menu it takes me to that record. Any thoughts?

...without FileMaker Advanced, so I don't have access to Custom Functions. Is there a way to create a "while" loop in the calculation for fields? What I'm trying to do is this: one field in Table A is the Interface table, showing a portal of related records from Table B, which contains Names. I've figured out how to filter the portal by a pull-down of set values, but I also want to be able to filter the portal based on a text search field, so that users can search by last name, first name, etc. I've gotten it to work when users enter full names (first or last), but I need to now populate the matching field in names with partial strings of either name. For exampl…

Can someone explain the difference between ## and Status(CurrentPageNumber) I figured they'd return the same value but I've been testing things with both and they've been returning different values.

I have a calculation field = X - Y I have checked the box for: "do not evaluate if all reference fields are empty" However the field will still calculate if only one field is entered with a value. How can I stop the calc working if only one field is entered? Ben

Greetings. May I kindly ask somebody to point me into the right direction. I have been trying for hours to get a date calculation right. The situation is: a) my FMSA is located at the East Coast - US my client is in Sydney - Australia c) the time difference is +20 hours for Sydney I need a date calculation which sets the date to Sydney time when a new record is created. Output form must be timestamp. On the server I can use: Get ( CurrentHostTimeStamp ) which results as: 23.01.2007 19:31:13. Now I need to add the 20 hours which is: 24.01.2007 15:31:13. I tried so many different calculations which didn't work correctly. Another questio…

I'm a novice with Filemaker 5.5 on Windows XP Pro. I need to "TRIM" several text fields. I have created duplicate calculation (results in text) fields. The "TRIM" is not trimming. All I've done is make a nice duplicate of the original fields with the same problem, extra spaces to the left. I already have the field formatted to left justify. Most of the records were keyed in correctly but too many were keyed in with 1 or 2 spaces to the left of the field. Thanks in advance. ;)

I _know_ this is a dumb question,but I've spent a couple hours trying to do this, and I just can't figure it out: I have a list of about 38k records. Of these, there are about 200 unique values. How can I cut this list from 38K to ONLY those 200 unique values? I've tried a few different ways--setting up a portal then running a script, creating a "Counter" value, as suggested in the FM help, but it's not working. I am sure there is a simpler way of doing this! Thanks

I have an inventory DB, Tables are "Product","WholesaleProduct", "Invoice","Suppliers" and "Product Item Detail". When I create an invoice on the Invoice portal I have the fields Wholesale Product ID, Product Description and Product ID. The product ID is my number the wholesale product ID is the supplier number. I want to be able to enter either number & have the product description come up. I have created another field called Product Calculated Name to hold the formula Case ( Wholesaler Product ID>1 ;Product Description::Product Description;Product ID >1 ; Product Description::Product Description )The formula works when I enter the Product ID but it does not w…

I have no idea if this is possible but what I have been asked for is to color code the test scores of our students. For example students that score between 1-500 would be red, 501-800 blue, 801-1000 green. I have no idea how to go about this so if it is possible any help would be terrific.

Hi, I'm a beginner with FM7. I'm trying to make a simple printout-able monthly calendar. I don't see how to put 31 records on one layout... so I'm thinking of defining 31 different fields and putting each month on a record. Does anyone have any tips on how to define records so a starting date layed out on the day of the week of my choice (depending on where the 1st of the month is) will generate the rest of the dates for that month? Or is there a better way—there must be. Please keep it fairly simple, as I have only barely looked at scripting once ever. Thanks for any and all help, Doug

In my educational database I have to extract in a teachers point system how many points they earn depending on the years of employment and kind of schools. The mathematical type is: Date of the employment end-Date of the employment begin plus (x)points of the particular school (coeficient z) is like Date(end)-Date(begin)x (z)= The problem is to calculate the days that exist between dates. Then z will be translated easily to numbers and multiply. Any ideas please. I think that is interesting. Pascal

I inherited two interelated relationships from a former developer I can't figure out. For DB:Committees, we have an auxilliary DB:Members, which contains records for both the multiple members of each committee, but also the single chairman (sometimes there are 2 co-chairs). DB:Committees has field com_GetChair, a calculation = com_CommitteeYear & "Chair". DB:Members has mem_FindChair, also a calculation, indexed = mem_CommitteeYear & Right(mem_RoleOnCommittee, 5). (The two CommitteeYear fields are different calculations in each DB. com_CommitteeYear = Left(com_YearRange, 4) & " " & com_CommitteeCode. com_CommitteeCode is a text field wi…

Hello, I have designed some buttons and bars in illustrator, and my question is ... what is the best way to save them so as I can manipulate and use them in FileMaker. Thanks, Tom

Hello, I am working on a membership database and would like to create a field that shows memberships expiring within the next two months (Feb and March). I have an expiration data field formatted as date/yr. How do I make a field that shows the expiration date plus 2 months? Thanks, MT

I have a variety of number fields that are populated as a result of an AUTO ENTRY calculation. The results often times have a decimal somewhere in them. These fields are formatted to read as whole integers. 3.4 displays as 3 5.4 displays as 5 The sum of 3.3 + 5.3 currently displays as 9 I would like it to display as 8. (I would also like to have the mathematical result = 8) [color:red]Is there a way to make the values always round up or down at the half-point & present the result as a true integer? What I would like is: 5.4 = 5 5.6 = 6 5 + 6 = 11 Any ideas? Thanks, Jarvis

I'm doing a study of height & weights - and I'm trying to set up a calculation that compares differences of values in selected fields just among subsets of twins (I have 7 sets of twins in data set of 1100 records so far). I created separate fields for: a) Twin set number; twin set letter (a, : to specify each twin within the twin set, and finally 3) a concatenated field of twin set # &letter (so concant. field would have values like 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, etc. for each individual twin). How do a set up the syntax for the case or whatever calculation to look for twins in same set - and subtract, for example, the weight fields between 1a & 1b; 2a & 2b, etc. - t…