incorrect display of value list

[Dave E]

I have encountered a peculiar problem.I have a field formatted as a value list. When I click on the field the value list (which draws its values from another file) displays only 10 values, although there are 112 records in the source file. I'm running FM 4.0v1 on an elderly Mac (with plenty of RAM). I'm sure there's a simple explanation- I just can't find it. Thanks

[Vaughan]

First update to v3.

The value list will only display the unique values of the field. If 10 records contain "Canada" the value "Canada" will only display once in the value list.

[Dave E]

Thanks for the responses.

All the records/values in the secondary file are unique. However, the records/values in field being referenced in the secondary file are the product of a concatenate function i.e. the field type is calculation, whereas the field type in the primary file is text.

[john.daly]

I've tried this on a PC with 30 records in the secondary file and all the names show in the value list of the main file. My version of FM is 4.0v3. Don't know whether this might make a difference?

[john.daly]

It definitely works OK with my version of FM4v3.0 even using a calculated field in the secondary file. Try updating as Vaughan suggests.

[Dave E]

Thanks for the responses.

I have other FM4.0v1 databases which work fine so I can't see how updating the version would help. I tried re-installing - that didn't have any effect either.

[john.daly]

If you want to email me the files I don't mind trying it for you on my version of FM4

[john.daly]

Using your files only 9 of the codes appeared, just as you described. The problem seems to be that the 'product code' field in your 'Product Master' file is a calculation and result is set to be 'number'. It is therefore ignoring all alpha chat=racters and there are then only 9 different codes so it is in fact working correctly!

Change the filed to 'text' in define fields and it showss all the product codes.

It's a mistake I have often made since the default for a calculation is 'number' and its easy to forget to change it. It would have been better if the default was text since this works even if you require a number!! Oh well I suppose Filemaker had their reasons or was it just to make life difficult for us all?

[Gerd Muller]

You MUST opgrade to v3. In the version v1, there is a bug that relating records (and that is what you have, if you have a value list with records of another file) will not show completely. I had the same problems with layouts containing fields of another file. Since I upgraded to v3, everything is OK

Gerd

[Dave E]

Thanks John, your observation re: text and numbers solved the problem. I did discover that changing the field definition is not enough: one needs to delete and then re-create the value list to make it work properly.