find 500 criterias in 20'000 records…

[nrambaud]

Yep, the title says all.

I have a list of 500 names.

How can if find quickly which records that contains ONE OR ANOTHER of these names ?

If it was a list of 20 I would make a script, entering them one by one.

But 500… is there a way to perform a search with a value list ?

I'm stuck…

Heeeelp!

[Søren Dyhr]

If you realize that a checkbox field with chosen items is similar to your list of names does this method provide a fine approach to such matters:

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/202370/

--sd

Edited April 22, 2006 by Guest
No fm8 stuff isn't in the code

[Ender]

nrambaub,

Presumably, there is something about those 500 records that makes you want to include them. If not, then add a field that can be used to put them into a group for purposes of this report. Then perform the find on this field or whatever it is they have in common.

[Genx]

If this is on a permanent basis and you have multiple groups like this you might also consider having a related table to allow adding a contact to one or more "groups" so to speak.

~Genx

[nrambaud]

Thank you all for your help…

Not english native, so probably I was not clear (…or I'm stupid and do not understand your answers).

Let's say I have a "name" field with 20'000 names, and have to find all names that contains "ax" OR "twi" OR "rec" OR… 497 more…

Desperate swiss man in Cambodia… You can get me as swissfriends on skype…

[Ender]

Those find criteria seem kind of arbitrary. Is there any particular pattern of text you're searching for?

Will this same search criteria be used over and over?

[nrambaud]

I have to analyse a huge bunch or URLs to find if they match with another bunch of URLs that are illegal…

Working in the child protection field…

So yes, the same criterias (around 500) will be used again and again…

[Ender]

In this case, I'd recommend storing those criteria in another table, Bad_Keywords or something, and use that anytime you want to run this find. This would also make it easy for users to add more criteria to this list over time.

The actual find could be done through a Go to Related Records[] script step on a filtered relationship.

If you can provide a couple of fake examples of what's in this field to be searched, I can provide a more detailed solution.

[nrambaud]

That would be more than great !

I'm probably able to duplicate and adapt scrpts and stuff like this, but it takes hours to create them…

Let's imagine I have those urls:

www.microsoft.com

www.messengermicrosoft.com

www.google.com

www.humans.ch

www.mac.com

And to find all of them that contains

microso

OR

human

OR

goog

Your help is MORE than appreciated !

Nicolas

[Ender]

Should the search term "microso" find the "www.messengermicrosoft.com" URL? This type of partial match in the middle of a word is possible, but it requires a little more work (probably requires a recursive custom function.)

I don't suppose you have access to FM7 Developer or FM8 Advanced??

[nrambaud]

Would be great if it could…

What I dream of is being able to add new "keywords" or expressions (like *micro*) when we discover them…

And… no, for now I do not have access to advanced versions…

Would like to though…

[Ender]

If you had access to Developer or Advanced, it might be worth trying the relational approach. Looking at your requirements, I think that custom functions would be necessary to explode the field being searched, allowing a multi-key relationship from the Search_Terms.

In the mean time, here is a sample showing how this search can be done with a Search_Term table, a few globals, and a traditional Find. It's not very pretty, but it should get the job done.

Multi_Search.fp7.zip

[nrambaud]

Great !

Finding that when I wake up is like christmas !

That's exactly what I needed, and I think I'm able to duplicate that in my own database !

Thank you again, you saved me a few weeks of work !