fireflyrsmr

thanks for all the hints. the database is rockin' now and goes into production today. this has been my first relational database. it is replacing hundreds of spreadsheets and a couple of flat file databases. i've been amazed how tricky you have to be and how careful in the construction. you guys have been a huge help.

well i learned a lot. thanks so much. i still can't do it but that's ok; there are not that many records - the ultimate brute force is to go through them one by the each. thom you're right. i created a new file and the """" thing worked fine. the problem (and i still don't understand this part) is that the information was imported and somehow this causes the inch sign (aka ") to not be seen as a quote sign by filemaker. i tried erasing the field contents and typing the exact number i had back in. now it ("""") finds it (the string with the quote) right away. the import is convoluted - from a mac file maker file (i think version 2) to a windows (version 5) file to this new file (version 5.0).

we are closer - if i type in """" i get - no records match this request. if i type =18"""" it finds the one record that has that entry in the (now) text field. no other combination of ", blanks, @, or * seem to get me the fields that have this inch sign thing. also if i type ="""" or =@@"""" i get a response of records found that have either a blank field and a field with a ? in it. if i type @@"""" i get all fields with 2 digits including the ones with the inch sign.

we have a field (currently defined as numeric) that sometimes has something like 23" plugged in instead of a straight number. i'd like to find those nasty inch abbreviations but all attempts have been futile. there must be some way - what is it? i've looked all over for the answer. obviously not in the right place yet. thanks.

the literal text find " " " gets me a response of - no valid criteria in this request. when i tried that before i thought it may be related to the field being defined as numberic. also - the nasty symbol is always butted up against a number because the person was saying xx inches. i don't want to use a substituiton because then the common unit for the numbers without the symbol (xx items we are counting normally) would get confused with this xx inches thing. i have to convert the xx inches to item number some time latter. then i'll be ready for the substitution. at this point i just wanted to find the records then export them. thanks for the help. sorry it may not have been clear before. hopefully it is now.

live oak - thanks for the info in this post. i had the same type of question.

thanks for the replys! when you're new to this level of working with databases it helps to know whether there is some obvious solution or if it truely a difficult issue. just for curiosity's sake - does anyone understand why they have this limitation build into filemaker?

i have a bunch of items in a couple of groups. I'm measuring them and coming up with averages and standard deviations. i want to compare those subtotaled averages in a calculation but i can't find a way to store them. i'm resorting to looking at the calculations in a report layout and manually copy paste to a new file. is there a better way? this is my first database. i see things that look like they should help but can't seem to get them there - such as repeating variables. i did a search on the forum and it seems like you have to recreate some of the summary calculations so that you can get the field stored. yikes!