glj

Thank you all for this very educational discussion.

For our workshop database, I'm trying to write a calculation, using logical functions, that will fill in the lodging cost according to what kind of room was requested ($525 for a single, $375 for a double, etc.) -- but only for records whose status field does not read either "cancelled" or "waiting." Can anyone help me diagnose why the following formula does not work? If ( status ="cancelled" or "waiting"; "0"; Case ( lodging request = "single" ; "525"; lodging request = "double" ; "375"; lodging request = "commuter" ; "150" )) My intention is for the formula to return the value "0" if the status field says "cancelled" or "waiting"; otherwise to evaluate the Case function to fill in the correct lodging cost. It almost works. Cancelled records are ignored, but not waiting ones. Using parentheses in the If function -- ("cancelled" or "waiting") -- does not work either. I'd be grateful for your advice. Many thanks in advance.

Thank you very much again for taking the time to explain this. You've definitely made the concepts clearer to me.

Thank you very much! This is great. Can you explain exactly what function the two U fields are performing? I'm just beginning to understand how all this works. George

Sorry to ask such a basic question, but I just can't figure this out from the user's manual and a lot of experimentation. I have one file which is a roster of students at our summer workshop. It tallies up the total amount of tuition paid. I have a second file which keeps track of the budget -- expenses, income, etc. How do I link these two files so that total tuition (calculated in file 1) shows up in file 2? Thanks very much. George Johnson

Thanks very much. That sounds like a good solution.

Oh, I see! Thank you very much. So each time I do an import, I get the new record and a copy (without my manual changes) of all the others? Is there any way to keep all these duplicates from piling up in the background other than manually deleting them each time? I usually do an import every time a new application arrives.

I am new to FileMaker and am very impressed but am having a bit of trouble. The online application form for my writing workshop generates a tab-delimited text file, and I import that into an FM database. Then I manually add information in certain fields -- for example, whether the person has been accepted or put on the waiting list. And I correct mispellings and typos entered on the Web form by the applicant. All that works fine. The problem comes when a new application has been received and I want to import it into the data base without affecting the existing data. When I choose the option "Add new records," the manually entered and corrected fields on the old entries are overwritten. I'm sure I am missing something basic here and would appreciate your help. Thanks in advance. George Johnson