I have a repeating field that contains an ID but they can be entered in a random order like 2, 5, 6, 1. Then a portal to shows me related record for each ID number. But the portal only sorts in oder so it would be 1, 2, 5, 6 or 6, 5, 2, 1.

How can I force the portal to sort in the same order that the id number are entered in the repeating field. Or can I have the repeating field automatically sort itself?

If you want to keep the sort as it is in the repeating field, then create another calculated repeating field to base the sort upon.

For example

Let([

R=Get (CalculationRepetitionNumber )];

Right("0000"&R&YourRepNumber;4))

Forgot to say. Didn't tried this, so you may want to sort on a Value List of these calculated IDs.

It would be better to get rid of the repeating field.

I would love to get rid of the repeating field but I haven't figured out how to display what I need to without it.

I need a way to easily show related records by typing an ID.

Can you elaborate? It sounds like you need a simple global to serial relationship.

more details.

the solution is a many-to-many I have one table we can call Main it has fields for Main ID, USER ID, and Device ID and a portal to show me related info.

The Users table has a USER ID and related_device_ID and a bunch of stuff related to a person. The Device table is just about the same DEVICE_ID related to USER ID. (there are several more tables that are unrelated so i wont bother). A user can use one or many devices and a DEVICE can have one or many USERS

In the main table I can assign a user to a device or devices. The problem I am struggling with is when in the Devices table assigning it to multiple people. What is working for me so far is having a the USERID in the DEVICES table be a repeating field so i can enter more than on USERID and have each user show up in a portal.

maybe i am thinking about it wrong but the right way hasn't come to me yet. But what i need is to see is every user that is assigned to a device in the DEVICE table.

I hope that make sense.

grumbachr

It does not sound as if you have a join table, which would be very useful in this type of situation. Do a search for +join +table +many-to-many on this site for more info.

Yes, you need a join table with DeviceID and UserID. You could then even have other fields like start date or expiration date, etc.

thanks for the help.

the join file was a little (okay a lot) confusing but not that I've finally worked through it and figured it out it makes complete sense.

again thanks for all your help.