2 way multiple relationship

[Bob Findlay]

Hi I'm having a bit of trouble and wonder if it's a limitation of fm, or me

I want to make a single database of pcs. the relationship I want to show is which machines rely on the current machine, and which machines the current machine relies on. e.g.

1. machine a

2. machine b (relies on a)

3. machine c (relies on

4. machine d (relies on a and

when showing machine B I'd like to see that c and d rely on it

when showing machine d I'd like to see it relies on a and b etc

it works with a single reliance (e.g. 2 and 3), but when I set a multiple reliance (e.g. 4) it fails.

I've set a relationship on field "relies on" to link to the "machine name" (called "relies on") and vice versa (called "relied on by")

e.g.

relied on by name = ::relies on

relies on relies on = ::name

If I use a normal field for "relies on" and put

"Machine A

Machine B"

in it (using a CR between them). I get spurious results when looking at the "is relied on by" relationship although the "relies on" looks good.

if I set the field "relies on" to be a repeating field, neither relationship gives me what I want.

am I missing something?

cheers

Bob

[Kurt Knippel]

Nothing you have stated thus far should cause a problem. It is either a bug in the version of Filemaker that you are using or a mistake on your part.

Make sure that you update to the latest version of Filemaker. Make sure that the fields on both sides of the relationships are Text fields.

The construct that you are referring to is called a Multi-Key, where more than one value is used in defining the relationship. This is different from a Compound Key, where multiple values are combined together into a single Key.

[ernst]

Don't see no problems with this. See attached file.

Regards,

Ernst.

machines.fp5.zip