valueListItem syntax

[Himitsu]

I have a loop function that has an "end loop if Afield =valueListItem ("student" ; "school location")

but it seems not to work... it keeps on looping like the value is false.... any hints?

[SlimJim]

ValueListItems returns a list of values. If you want to check that a field is equal to one of the values then you need to check that it is in the lis. For example

PatternCount(Afield;ValueListItems("student";"school location")) > 0

should normally work, but, if there is a possibility of Afield being actually within one of the values then you may have to add in some extra carriage returns to ensure that you are checking for a complete value:

PatternCount("¶" & Afield & "¶";"¶" & ValueListItems("student";"school location") & "¶")> 0

There may be simpler ways of doing this, if so it would be nice to see them.

[Himitsu]

Hmm... I tried both of those... it did the same thing... I can understand the patterncount, but I wondering why it doesn't work...

[Søren Dyhr]

There could be some syntactical things wrong, I do always make the first parameter in the function a Get ( FileName ) instead of hardwirering.

Next thing that comes to mind is if the field the valuelist is basede on can't be indexed, will the valuelist be very very short :

But it surprises me that a school location only exists in a valuelist, is it a dynamic valuelist?? If so couldn't a multicriteria relation ship be used instead to establish a IsValid[

http://www.filemaker.com/help/FunctionsRef-311.html

...which is almost, if not quite the same as you "Help" throws up!

To me is VL's here a convoluted way of establishing a membership of a found set of records.

--sd

[Himitsu]

well, I know the valulist is coming from another file not table. And it is just a list not from a field... however, I am going to change that and make a new table in the same file that allows the user to add a school location as a new record. Then I will base the valuelist off that field from that table. Let me set that up first and see if it functions better that way.

[Søren Dyhr]

Not quite nessersary, just move the valuelist defintion to the file where the script runs, and reference it instead of the valuelist in the other file.

--sd

[Himitsu]

well, I just made a custom value list with two items,

A and B and that field is a global but uses the same valuelist... still nothing.

[Himitsu]

now I just changed the name of the file to the Get(filename) instead.. nothing! still remains in the loop. I know the calculation has to be a bolean, so I am thinking Afield has to = something from the valuelist. Sounds easy...

[Søren Dyhr]

You can't build valuelist with globals due to the lack of indexes, could you make a small template for us to investigate without japanese signs???

--sd

[Himitsu]

well, the value isn't coming from a field. The list is a custom value. The field that the endloop if function is a global. I will make just a simple layer using it and post it.

[Himitsu]

Ok here is a simple version of it. Same syntax I used, just removed the other bits around it.

valueListValidate.zip

[SlimJim]

Hi Himitsu

Many apologies for failing to see this earlier but I console myself with the thought that I am not the only one who missed it. The PatternCount function has it's parameters the wrong way round. In your sample use:

Exit loop If[

PatternCount (ValueListItems (Get ( FileName ) ; "school location" );valueListValidate::location_G

)]

[Himitsu]

Thanks a ton!!! I put that in and great! Worked GREAT!