I am trying to export to a csv file that I can upload to a mysql database. I need the first row to have the field names. How do I do this?

Or can I export to an odbc connection mysql table? Any plugin suggestions that can do this?

Thank you.

The Merge format will export the field names too, and so does Excel, HTML, for a complete list of the compatible formats, and what you can expect on export and import, check the on line help.

Lee

The files I save as a merge file can not be imported into Mysql. I changed the .mer to .csv...

Is this the correct way to do it?

I can not believe that Filemaker doe not have an option to save the field names in a csv file. That is totally unacceptable for such an expensive peice of software. If they want to make the database as compatible and easy to use as possible why don't they have an option to put them in or not. Even CRAPPY LOTUS APPROACH did that and it hasn't been updated in about 8 years.

A merge file is tab-separated. A .csv file is comma-separated (and the fields are in quotes). Changing the filename extension will not change the file's contents.

Filemaker, being "such an expensive peice of software", supports the XML standard for export and import - so with the help of an appropriate stylesheet, you can format the export to virtually anything you want. There's also an option of interacting with an external SQL database directly.

There's plenty of room to criticize Filemaker - but one should know the facts before doing so. Perhaps you would be happier using a less expensive database program such as ... :)

As I said in my first post [color:red] where you made no mention of SQL, only that you needed the field names:

The Merge format will export the field names too, and so does Excel, HTML, for a complete list of the compatible formats, and what you can expect on export and import, check the on line help.

,

As comment pointed out, there is definitely a difference between the Mer and the CSV.

if you read the help file, you will also find information about SQL.

Lee

"A merge file is tab-separated." Oops, no, it's comma-separated (at least for me). The only difference to a regular comma-separated (.csv) is that the field names are the 1st line, and they are not in quotes. The rest of the file, the data, is in quotes. If there's other problems in the data then you'd have to fix them. But I don't see why a Merge file wouldn't work. As comment says, you can put whatever line ending you want, .csv, .txt; .mer is just the suggested default.

Hi Fenton,

Good catch.

As I stated before. They need to read about the different File Formats, in order to see which one fits their needs. Most of the imports I use are into FileMaker, and I primarily use the Tab separated text.

I forgot say it this time, but I usually recommend that a new user read about and then test the different file formats to see what they do.

Lee

Edited January 21, 200619 yr by Guest
clean up

Oops indeed! Thanks for the correction!