If - then auto-fill-in for FMP 4.1

[Flanzy]

I want to put a text value in one field and depending on that value have another value automatically fill in another field. Is this possible and if so, how? I have been trying to figure it out with scriptmaker, value list, relationships - but don't see how. Thank you.

[Lee Smith]

Hi Flanzy,

You are pretty vague on what the fields types are now (i.e. Text, date, numbers, etc.)

But assuming you have two text fields, Field1 and Field2, I would use a calculation. I would also attach a value list to Field1 to ensure that whatever word you are looking for are entered correctly. I.e. in my example, yep.

Field2 (calculation, Text Result) =

Case(Field1="yep", "Okay", "Not Okay")

HTH

Lee

[Flanzy]

Lee, thank you for your reply. I will see if it makes sense to me. But to explain further: The db is for used books. I have a field called "category" and another called "parent category" If the text in category is "WW I" I want the parent category to automatically fill-in "American History." If the category is "Aviation & Flight" I want the parent category to fill-in "transportation." I have a value list set for the category and I can do one for parent category if that would work. I definitely want all the terms to be constant. Flanzy

[Oldfogey]

I'm guessing your numbers of Categories and Parent Categories are going to run to something of the order of 100 or more? (As opposed to say 20, when a long Case statment might be feasible.)

Consider setting up a separate file holding Category and corresponding Parent Category. Link your main file to this file using Categorey. Then, in your main file, do a simple lookup using Category to get Parent Category.

If you define your value list to be the field Category from the subsidiary file, your list is always 100% accurate and also updates automatically when you update that file.

[Flanzy]

Paul, you were correct. I just had the chance to try the solution and it works beautifully. I set up about 20 for the try-out. Will now set it all up. All the years I've been using FMP 4.1 - never had need for this feature and was looking for another keyword in the manual index and coming up with a big zero. Thank you and all who participate in this forum for the help! Happy 2005!