Occurrences of a value in a field

[giles]

Hi folks, I'm a newbie here so I hope I'm posting this question in the right place. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way of counting the number of times a value appears in a field ... for example something like

Count(CacheTotal "1 2")

with "1 2" being a value produced by the expression (CacheA & " " B CacheB). I know the above is incorrect but i'm hoping it may illustrate the kind of thing that I'm trying to do. Any help would be GREATLY appreaiated.

Giles

[slstrother]

Use PatternCount.

PatternCount(CacheTotal "1 2")

[Lee Smith]

Hi slstrother,

You forgot a ","

SB

PatternCount(CacheTotal, "1 2")

Hi Giles,

There is also a way to use the PatternCount on the fly, by creating a global field using it in place of your pattern of "1 2". You can then look for any pattern in that field including the "1 2".

I could send you a small demo file of this if you need it.

Lee

[slstrother]

Thank you Lee, sometimes the fingers don't react to input from the brain, they do what they want.

[jasonwood]

If I understood giles' question, I believe he's looking for a way to count the number of records in which a particular field contains "1 2".

For that I guess the best way to go would be to perform a find on "1 2" in that field, then the result will be Status(CurrentFoundCount)

[Lee Smith]

Well, now he has a second way to go. I wonder if we will ever know if either one of these is what he wanted.

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Well Lee, if he didn't ask for your sample, I'd rather be interrested by this one.

How come you have so many samples. Did you made a sample database or something ?

Thanks anyway for helping us out every time you can.

[daltwin]

Well, here is a third way (if Jasonwood's interpretations is right).

Make a global field that is called SearchText

Make a calculation called SeachFound that is If(TheField = SearchText, 1, 0)

Make make a summary field which is set as 'Total of SearchFound'.

Then if you enter 1 2 in the SearchText field, the summary field will update to tell you how many times 1 2 appeared in TheField in the current found set of records. This way, you can search always for different things using then same system.

[Lee Smith]

Here is the file I mentioned.

It's a FMP 5,x and although I made it up on a Mac, I Ziped it. Let me know if you have any problems with getting it opened.

Lee

PatternCountGiles.fp5.zip

[Ugo DI LUCA]

perfect, thanks.

[giles]

Hi everybody.

WOW! what a response. Thank you all for your help I really appreciate it! Thanks Lee (smith) for taking the time to make a demo of PatternCount