Recently, I was sent to a training by my company on how to effectively search and analyze databases. A key componet was doing SQL searches - and using Access. Maybe it was poor research, but my company exclusively uses Mac OS X and Filemaker was the database of choice. As FM 7 translates Access databases, my only concern is whether I can someone make basic SQL searches within filemaker or if I will need to learn how to use a program like CocoamySQL. Using Access is just not possible at my job, they just moved over to Macs. Any thoughts from FM pros would be appreciated.

As FM 7 translates Access databases

What do you mean by this?

It is possible to query Filemaker with SQL using ODBC/JDBC, but it's actually easier to use find queries and portals to show records matching certain criteria. You can use relationships to search related fields and do joins by just placing related fields on a table's layout.

It probably was poor planning to send you to a course on access if they are a Mac shop. If you really want to use SQL on a Mac, you can pick from many different products (MySQL, PostgreSQL, firebird, etc.) but then if you want to write a program around that system you need to use some other environment like Servoy, Realbasic or PHP depending on what you want to do.