Keys for match fields

[Bill Jaynes]

I have a db invoices and one of vehicles. I've had them linked through a match field

"license number". A friend tried my program and suggested using unique values generated by FM5 for the match fields. Could someom hjelp me sort this out?

So far, I've had the user enter the license number on the invoice; then click a "new vehicle" button which called "new record" in vehicles and "set field" it's license to that entered in the invoice.

I picture the new way having "new vehicle" put a serial number in the vehicle portal in the invoice then making a new vehicle in that file and pasting that serial number there for a match.

If this isn't clear I apologize in advance for the extra cpu time to grasp this.

Bill

[CaelC]

If you are creating the invoice first, and then the vehicle info, you can actually create the vehicle info from within a portal in the invoice file. Once you set your match fields, the vehicle one will actually be automatically marked on creation to match the invoice one.

As far as which field to use a key (match) field, it depends on your business data structure and how exactly you operate. However, I would recommend using a number field without alpha characters. Depending on how your business data model works, you may be able to use the invoice number as the key field, I'm not sure without more details.

Hope this helps,

Cael.