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yes breaking it down then building it up helps me I actually have filemaker pro 8 but as its not a straight upgrade to transfer my databases from 5 and because i use the databases everyday for business I am not game to change The old motto if it aint broke dont fix it as i get more time i may look at changeing it all over But hey thank you for your guidance on this

scratch last comment got it sorted and the formula im using is Right( details, (Length(details))-(Position( details, "," , 1 , 1 )))

Ok cool I actually got it working but the way i have it working is by having fields for the individual functions. In the vane of me learning rather than someone just giving me the answer, is this necessary or could i put it all in a script you don't need to tell me how to do it just where i should be looking ie can it all go in a script or does it have to be in separate fields to achieve the result,or is there another way to get it to process the information. just seems a bit wasteful having all those fields

Sorry im not a programmer so my reading of logic is limited The only trouble with your solution is that the text length varies ie graham,123 high street,town,london graham foster,12345 high street,the town new zealand the field that i want to extract the data from are name and address fields

so are you saying it would look like Right( details , Position( details,, 1, 1) -1) sorry I have a little knowledge and are dangerous with it, appreciate your help I tried a few combinations and got know where

So whilst you are on a roll how then do i get the address data only? if john smith,123 high street,the place,downunder Left( details , Position( details, "," , 1, 1) -1) gets john smith what gets 123 high street,the place,downunder

Thank you for that works brilliantly!!!

I import some data from a online source. Part of that data that goes into one field is separated by commas like> graham jones, 123 high street,town, or mr graham jones,123 high street,town, i need to be able to separate the text before the first comma to a different field. I cant use leftwords as the text before the first comma varies thanks for any input

Ok Ithink im getting there have got it removeing spaces but not returns Left(test2, 8) If [Left(test2,1)=" ¶"] Set Field["test2", "Right( test2, Length(test2)-1 )" End If If [Right(test2,1)=" ¶"] Set Field["test2", "Left(test2, Position( test2, "¶" ,1, PatternCount(field, "¶" ))-1)"] End If Can you spot the mistake?

I was actually going to post a question re spaces but the answer may be here I cut and paste from emails into fields sometimes the input string has spaces at the begining or end that i dont want recorded is this the same thing that you are talking about here?

ok excellent I have to go to work now but will try that when i get home Thanks

Ok please bare with me I know a little so Im dangerous as they say I have the following data:- CHRISTINE *Best Price DVD* Das Boot *Best Price DVD* FINDING FORRESTER *Best Price DVD* as individual records I want to automatically remove the *Best Price DVD* from each record. The title of the DVD changes Thanks for your help