Tripod

Just wanted to say that I found this to be very cool--I do a lot of statistical work and have always wished there were built in functions for all measures of central tendency. I have seen people move to Access over this. --Tripod

Could it be that your DNS is flaking out?

From what I have read, it seems the transition from v6 to v7 is a lot smoother than a v5 or v5.5 to v7 transition. So now we know why we needed v6, I guess. From the feature set, I figured v6 was one I would skip (especially as a Mac user). --Tripod

Use the position function to find the word in the large field. e.g. Syntax: Position(HAYSTACK, NEEDLE,1,1) returns 2 when string value in variable NEEDLE is found starting in character position 2 of string HAYSTACK. The 1,1 part tells FM to start in position 1 and find the (1) first occurance of NEEDLE in HAYSTACK. I think there is also a simplier form that assumes one of these. Examples Position("Mississippi", "iss",1,1) returns 2 . Position("Mississippi", "iss",1,2) returns 5 . Position("Mississippi", "iss",3,1) returns 5 . Left(Name, Position(Name, " ", 1, 1)-1) returns William, when Name is a text field that contains William Smith. Right(Name, Length(Name) - Position(Name, " ", Length(Name), -1)) returns Smith . This finds the string, and returns a position within the 'haystack' where the 'needle' is found. --Tripod

Was quite acceptable here, on T1 network, in Midwestern USA (where I happen to be today)... Not exactly snappy, but not terribly slow, either. How is this setup? FM5+? Good luck, --Tripod

Maybe I don't understand, but couldn't you just find all records that have a body part beforehand? Probably there is some other data that you would lose if you did that? Maybe do a calc to see if empty? Then find/sort/print? --Tripod

When you set up the relationship, you must be sure to check the field 'allow creation of related records' (or something close to that effect) for the related file. It won't work without that. --Tripod

Yes, this should work. The executable file size is rather large in FM7 though, something like 20MB for the runtime alone. The runtime part is much smaller in older versions. --Tripod

I was going to suggest grouping, or possibly making a layout where the effect did not look as bad, was more aesthetically pleasing--maybe something very contrasty would work without any extra layout effort? Personally, I always thought the effect was kind of cool. But, I know what you mean about 'super users'. --Tripod

Again, Scriptology Demystified by John Mark Osborne is a great book, but is very dated now (mine is based on verion 3, but still relevant for many things, mostly for getting the gist of how FMP works, getting a broad understanding of it. Not sure if I would buy it today though, there is probably a new version coming soon) it has a summary of functions IIRC. There are a lot of resources on the web, lesaux, briandunning, advisor media (they have a great FMP magazine) database pros, fmpro.org, --too many to read, almost. :-) It's a bit hard to find functions in the help system, but they are there. Look under filemaker help. Under reference, click on category list or alphabetical list. That should get you started. (I have FMP developer 7 on Mac OS X, so it might be a bit different on the regular 'dark side' version. :-) Have fun, --Tripod

If this is all in the same variable, SYMPTOM, then I suppose you make a new summary variable called (for example) symptom_count, that would equal the count of these symptoms. Then, on a new layout, you could put a sub summary part that would contain the SYMPTOM and symptom_count variable (when sorted by symptom, and viewed as FORM in preview mode, it would show the count of each symptom in the symptom_count variable and the name of the symptom (each unique) under SYMPTOM.) You can also put the symptom_count variable in a grand summary layout part to show the total number of patients summarized with all symptoms. That's the general way that it's done. Sounds complicated, but it's simple after you do it a few times. There are some sample summary templates/databases that are included with FMP. You might want to check those out (particularly look in layout mode) or look around on this web site for other examples. Also, if you go to layout mode and make a new layout, it should offer to create a summary layout for you (I think it might even create the summary variable for you--no that that is difficult in the define fields menu command). If you have more than one variable to summarize, you will probably have to define a summary field for each variable you wish to summarize. If you have repeating fields, etc... it could get a bit complicated, but it's very doable after you've been though it a few times. Sounds like you might need a good book, like Scriptology, to cement your intermediate status. FMP is far more capable than excel. But, as such, there is more to know/learn. Still, FMP is far more intuitive than Access. Have fun, good luck, and welcome to the forum (I'm a relatively new member myself), --tripod

Yeah, if you only have a few conditions that differ from a default int or round conversion, then IF or CASE would be your best bet. Try writing it again, and posting the specific code and folks will most likely go out of the way here to show you what you are missing...

Just to chime in here, if you had FM7, you can use instant web publishing and the access log will show who logged in and when. In FM7 there are usernames as well as passwords, and usernames show in the access log. But you are limited to 5 users in FM7. I hear that in v8 we will be limited to 1 simultaneous user. :-) --Tripod

I downloaded this. It is pretty cool, but I am not sure I understand it. Particularly the relationships graph! Are you using all those relationships? I'll try and take it apart and see if I can make sense of it. When I get to that point, I'll post again. I think this is a great example, but I'm not sure how it all works yet. If you wanted to post a summary of how it works, and why, I would be interested... --Tripod

Wow, I found the "Key Concepts in Filemaker 7" by Michael Harris ( www.digfm.org/ref/fm7_key_concepts.pdf )" to be a VERY informative read. Now I see just how layouts are tied to table occurances. I have not really used FM7 that much, still playing... I found your link broken, but a google search quickly found the article. This link was working for me: http://www.digfm.org/ref/FM7_key_concepts.pdf (You have to capitalize FM, I think.) --Tripod