Can anyone help me figure out the fastest way to store the contents of some related records into one text field? Essentially, a portal works, but I have to export the data to a text file so I need to squish the data into one text field.

Background: I have a bunch of people participating in multiple events. A self relationship based on participant gives me the unique set I need to export but I need a way to put all the events into one field, seperated by a paragraph return. Sort of a summary.

I'm probably overlooking something simple but I'm brain fried.

Thanks.

Create a value list based on the relationship to these files and select the field that you want to get the data from. Then make a calculated field with the formula:

Valuelistitems("dbname","valuelistname")

Substitute the actual names of your main database and the value list for those shown above.

I feel about this small. Thanks Bob.

and Duh!

Funny. Doesn't work. The value list works properly as a popup list but the calculation field is blank. Set to "text". Double checked database names and value list name. Indexed on and off.

Any ideas? It is a self-relationship but that shouldn't matter should it?

Since the list is working when you access it on a pop-up field, the problem likely lies with the syntax of your formula.

First check that the formula is 'Unstored'. Then double check that you have included both the file name and the value list name within quotes in the formula. Also check that you have correctly included (or excluded) the .fp5 extension on the db name, and that you have entered the value list name exactly as it appears in the Value List dialog (including capitalisation, spaces including leading and/or trailing spaces, punctuation etc etc.

Chances are you'll find that one of these things is causing the function to fail.