Sort Part Number List for Multiple Suppliers

[theyetti]

Hi, I've got a DB that lists parts I require. Against these P/Ns I record possible suppliers for each part. I want to generate a list that I can send to a supplier to request availability. Each part may have many suppliers so must appear on each supplier list but not all suppliers carry all parts. The possible suppliers are entered from a drop down list into a repeating field (10) but I could change this as required.

What I want to end up with is:

Supplier 1

Part 1

Part 2

Part 5

(new page)

Supplier 2

Part 5

Part 6

(new page)

etc.

Thanks Pedro :-)

[RalphL]

You need to get rid of the repeating field. The way I would do this is use 3 tables, Supplier, Part & SupplierPart. Supplier has theSupplierID, name, address, city, etc. Part has Part Number, Details about part, etc. SupplierPart has SupplierID, Part Number, cost, etc. A portal in Supplier will show parts from the supplier. A portal in Part will show suppliers for the part.

I posted a similar file yesterday

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat...true#Post138654

[transpower]

I agree with Ralph, but if you must continue to use the repeating fields (for some other reason), you could use two custom functions: SetTexttoRepeatingField and BubbleSort. This will give you a list of sorted suppliers in a text field for a given part. http://www.briandunning.com/filemaker-custom-functions/

However you would then need to set up (by script) a global matrix of suppliers (rows) and parts (columns) (see my SetCell custom function) and then extract and print the rows one by one. So, now you see why we usually avoid repeating fields--although they do have their uses.

[Søren Dyhr]

but if you must continue to use the repeating fields (for some other reason)

The number of inherited databasesystems astonishes me ...the relational implementaion in filemaker showed up in 1995 with ver 3.0! But lightyears isn't lightyears everywhere apparently my dear R2D2...

--sd

[theyetti]

Thanks Guys, I've managed to get it working using a portal similar to what Ralphl suggested and it's working -)

Thanks again and best wishes for the holiday season,

Cheers Pedro :-)