Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

I'm still learning my way round filemaker relational tables and i have found this forum great help but I have hit a wall I have a contacts table and a quotes table and I want a "new quotes" button on the contacts page so that when you hit the button it takes you to the quotes layout and populates the contact id fk field (so that you dont have to enter the contact details again. A helpful soul on this site sent me a sample file and it worked exactly how i wanted and i have studied it over and over again but even though I think I have set mine up in the same way it does not seem to work. Can you please take a look at the attached file and see where I am goin…

I am new to the forum and I am trying to set up a calculation where I enter the current hour meter reading and it will display the hours run since the last record's current reading. How can I reference the previous record's entry? Thanks Nverted

If I have a list (one text field), such as: Pigs Can Fly Pigs Don't [color:blue]Fly South For Winter [color:green]Pigs Fly North For Summer I want to specify two lines (in this case words) and find the number of lines between them. So, if I specify [color:green]Pigs then [color:blue]Fly, I want the result to be determined as: The last Pigs entry is at 10. The first Fly entry (BEFORE) the last Pigs is at 6. Difference is 4. So the first criteria is the LAST matching entry and the second criteria is the FIRST entry right before the first criteria (last Pigs). My result should be 3 (3 full lines between). I don't have a text fie…

I have a problem with my case function Case(Quantity >= 1 and Colors="1 Color";"2.70"; Quantity > 6 and Colors="1 Color";"2.55"; Quantity > 20 and Colors="1 Color";"1.50";"") Example: I input the number 12 into my quantity field and pick 1 color from my drop down list and i get a value in my unit price field of 2.70. Now as per my case function i should have the number 2.55 in the unit price field instead since 12 is greater than 6. and if i go and change the quantity the same value stays in the unit price field. Can someone help. Im not sure if i should use a less than sign instead of greater than but i dunno any helpp will be appreciate…

I have an auto-enter serial count like: course 1 course 2 course 3 If the record with the auto-enter ID: course 2 is deleted by mistake or purpose the serial brakes in this point and is look like: course 1 then jumb to course 3 How can we fix the auto-enter serial to count from the beggining again the records in their write turn? Pascal

I have been wondering on where to start with this. Any help is appreciated. I have a calculation that returns the time a record was last updated but it is in hours. How can I convert it to days: My calculated result: 25:14:01 Desired result: 1 Day, 1 Hour, 14 Minutes Thanks!

I am trying to write a validation script to test whether any records in a found set have been modified. I defined a timestamp field that auto enters the modified time/date for the record. I used a loop to test for notempty fields. The problem is that the script acting upon the record, modifies it, and therefore autoenters a value in the field defeating the entire process. Is there a workaround / technique out there I can use ?

I wonder if someone could suggest a simple and good way of monitering stocks in my business? I have one file that has a table of invoices with the amount of items going out. The items I purchase is on another file. How can I get the amount in stock to be automatically calculated each time I issue an invoice of the outgoing item? I assume I should use the calculation field or do I need to write a script for that? I'm quite in the dark about this. Help is appreciated. Thanks.

Hi all! I guess this is really easy, but somehow I don't seem to be able to think straight today... First Field: a simple value. Like 100 dollars. Second Field: a percentage value. Like 10%. Third Field: The sum of First and Second Field. Easy, isn't it?!! Well, at least not for me right now. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance Anders

Hello hello again, anybody knows::? When I have the following record ( the numbers/values change in every new record created, but the order and other marks(letters etc) stays the same)... SN:3222 E:015 19.4.2005 17:40 R:13,208 mm/s @ 23,2 Hz V:14,224 mm/s @ 22,2 Hz T:25,400 mm/s @ 17,6 Hz VS:26,924 mm/s A: 0 dB Is there any function to get some particular line of data filtered automatically from that record even the values change, so I could make a filtering by choosing the line ?What calculation would do? Thanks much more than a lot for anyone who can help.

This is the code I use to create a database of dates. Can someone tell me how to do this in Filemaker? Thanks. Function filldates2(sdate As Double, edate As Double) Dim i As Double Dim j As Double Dim db As Database Dim rs As Recordset Set db = CurrentDb() Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("TblDates", DB_OPEN_DYNASET) Dim numdates As Double numdates = edate - sdate For i = 1 To numdates For j = 1 To 2 rs.AddNew rs!Date = sdate + i rs!SessionLength = IIf(j = 1, "AM ONLY", "PM ONLY") rs.Update Next j Next i rs.Close End Function

I have a database with a list of students, and their employment history. The employment history is stored on a table and I have a portal on the student layout that shows the employment history (I also use the portal to add new employers to the history). The last record in the portal is obviously the current employer. I also have a list layout which lists all the students and their current employer. I am having trouble getting the field to show their last (current) employer. I created a button with a script that updates the field and it works, but how do I get the field on the list layout to update the moment a value is changed?(In other words the moment an employer …

Can anyone tell me any uses for calculations stored globally and clearify how they behave? Sure they must be useful but cant think of any reason to deploy them. best Stuart

I've been trying to find out how to define a field that has an integer value that auto updates each time I create or delete a record. Each row below is a record in Filemaker for that field: 1 2 3 5 7 8 If I were to insert a record at 7, it would change the value of 7 to 8, and the value of 8 to 9 and automatically insert the value 7 at that record. If I were to delete record 7, record 8 would change its value to 7 in that field. How do I setup my field to have that characteristic?

I have got a calculation written to calculate if a date has expired but I'm not sure how to calculate the amount of time that has expired?? My calc is If ( renewal date ≤ Get ( CurrentDate ) ; "Expired" ; "" ) But how do I work out (in this instance) how many months have expired?? Thanks in advance

Hello all, I'm very very new to Filemaker and just learning slowly by myself. I'm trying to set a month field that automatically enters the current month a record is being created, and I finally found the right calculations for it which is: MonthName ( Get ( CurrentDate ) ) But I have more questions regarding this setup. I would like the result shows as the first 3-letters of the month, ie: Jan, Feb, Mar, etc. Is there anyway to do this easily? I have searched the forum and google it, and also reading the help menu with no answer. Also I'm planning to buy a book so can you recommend me which book is the best one for a total beginner like me? My go…

Hie I was record area colorly to want examp as picture? http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4817/examng5.jpg

hi all, < i'm new here, so let me know if this should be posted elsewhere on the forum. apologies in advance for the length, and for my probably basic questions. -) i'm developing a database for my work (a university) to track awards and honors received by professors. i'm running into a conceptual problem (due to my inexperience with filemaker) and i'm hoping someone can give me some ideas. i'm a filemaker newbie, but i'm willing to do what it takes to get this right. first, a little about the database: it will be used to track awards, publications, fellowships, etc for approximately 250 professors. i will be the primary user, but i want to mak…

Does anyone know how to lock or freeze a tap so it does not revert back to the default when you leave a page and come back to it. I have 3 tabs each is a different company, what I would like to do is have a pull down box the is the Final selector if you will for the page. Once this has been made it freezes out or locks the other tabs so it does not switch back to them when you leave. Thank you Joseph

It seems like this should be a simple calculation, but I haven't worked with FM for a while and have never done too much with calculations. What I need to do is define a Sales Tax field that says: If the Ship To State = MD, Sales Tax = Item Subtotal * .05. I can't seem to figure that out using the options in FM though. I am using FM8. Thanks for any help. Mike

I have a text field with 10 repetitions. In some records all of the repetitions are populated with a value. In some of the records only a few of them are populated. [color:red]Is there a way to keep count how many of the repetitions are populated? Thanks for any suggestions, Jarvis

I am wondering if anyone knows of a good resource, where I can figure out how to use repeating fields. I think they will help my solution, so I would like to try them out. If this is the wrong place for this post, let me know, and I will repost it elsewhere. Perhaps this will help you give me direction, it may be confusing, but here it goes: I am creating a database that handles Scholarship applications, awardings, and sending of letters to recipients. Here are my tables: Scholarship Donors------Awards>---Applications>---Applicants PKs Scholarship Donors = Account # Award Allocations = Account #/Award ID Awards = Award ID Applic…

I want to set up a validation by calculation that will check to see if the user has entered a comma in a text field. I'm having no luck doing this.. can it be done? If so can someone help me out here? Thanks!

I need to generate a table of dates to link to a booking table, so that I will be able to see what days are booked and what dates are still free. I need 2 records for eeach date (for AM and PM bookings) How do I do this in FileMaker?

I defined a container field (repeating, 6x)and put it on a layout. I use this field to LINK PDF files to project records. Those files are on a shared network drive. Most records contain 2 a 3 links in that field en browsing the project records became very slow. Those links are set to be updated automatically. Has anyone some tips to optimize recordbrowsing in this context?

I looking for a variant for "auto_enter serial" function. Invoice set up for auto enter ... Inv1 Inv2 Inv3, etc. is normal.... I need a way to allow Inv1 Inv2 -1 Inv2 - 2 Inv3, etc. For the life of me I can not see how to do this .... Any ideas out there? Thanks

What would be a good image format that I can use with a contianer field. I want a small image in size but yet I would like to see a good quality image. I'll have hundreds of images for inventory reasons. I'll be using my laptop that has a 40GB drive.

I would like to give one type of user the ability to either leave a field open for input or close the field for input for another set of users. Any ideas?

Hello, I have a csv file I receive daily that has orders in it. This file has multiple records or one record per unique order. Some orders are 1 item per order. Others are several items per order. Each item record has an orderid that can be sorted on. I need a report to print out one occurence of the customers details and all the items they ordered and then an order total by each orderid. I have read several posts but being so new I am not sure where or what to be searching for. I have tried the subsummary totals and I can get a total to print out at each record and then an summary order total on the last record of that order id. I looked at the i…

Hi, How do I eliminate the spaces "from this text" so that the result is "fromthistext"? The word count of the phrase is not constant; and there is no pattern to the phrase but the lenght of the phrase is not more than 6 words max. Thanks for any help, yknot

If a field is a text type, and you are restricting it to a value list of "yes" and "no", is there a way of counting the number of records that have "yes" and also counting the number of records that have "no" ?

I need a way to evaluate a calculation in a related table based on the current record in the current table. I suspect there is a more elegant way than what I'm thinking, but I was thinking if I could have a calculation set a value in the current record, that would be the way to do it. I'm trying get(RecordOpenState) but it doesn't seem to reliably be able to tell me the current record. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I know that you can use the following to reference a field in a text box: <> and the value of fieldname shows in the text box in Browse mode. I'm wondering if there is a similar way to put a reference into a field, kind of like what happens in a word processing mail-merge. What I'm trying to do is 'personalize' the value of a field which is the body of an email that will be 'bulk mailed'. I would like the user to be able to free-format the body of the email, where some of the content is unique to the individual recipient of the email. For example, assume the email is to confirm appointment schedules for a list of customers - date and time. The dat…

I have attached the file I am working on. I am looking to do a calculation for inventory purposes on yardage of fabric. There are two times we are entering in information and on the first time we enter data, we put the yardage ordered. The second time we enter data we put the yardage currently on the roll. I want a calculation that waits until I put the "starting quantity" to subtract the "yards" to get the calculated "balance remaining". Currently when I enter, say, 4 yards, it calculates -4 yards in the balance field and does not recalculate when I enter the starting quantity. Check it out and let me know. Thanks. FM.zip

Hi All, I've got a number of fields that hold stock item pricing. I want to dynamically change the number of decimal places displayed based on the amount each item is priced at eg. $1.00 as two decimal places, $0.0755 as three decimal places, etc. I can use an "If" statement to test but I'm not sure how to do the formatting. Is this going to be possible using the calculation option on field setup? Thanks Pedro -)