Auto-enter Repetition Field

[knight]

Hi everyone,

I have a newbie question...how can I auto-enter a single value in all the repetition fields?

For example: I have a field "Color" with 3 repetitions. I would like to auto-enter "Blue" into all the repetition fields of "Color". Right now, when I auto-enter "Blue", only the 1st repetition field is affected. The 2nd and 3rd repetition fields remain blank.

Thanks for your help.

[Søren Dyhr]

It's not a newbe question, it's a newbe distration. You must never store anything other than relational key's in repeating fields. To be honests isn't "blue" a worthy candidate to the term relational key but more likely user readable data.

When you know filemaker thoroughly enough will you be able to do what you wish to as an exception, but for now ditch them right away as concept!

--sd

[knight]

Hi SD,

Thanks for the reply, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you're getting at...

Maybe if I give another example:

I have a field "My Price for Gizmo" with 3 repetitions where I manually enter 3 values, say "$1", "$2" and "$4". I have another field "Markup", also with 3 repetitions, for which I would like to auto-enter (by default) the value of "50%" into all 3 repetition fields. Finally I have a third field "Selling Price for Gizmo" with 3 repetitions which would calculate the results of "$1.50", "$3.00" and "$6.00".

My challenge right now is with the "Markup" field. I would like to auto-enter "50%" into all 3 repetition fields by default but allow me the flexibility of changing the value of one or more repetition fields as necessary. In other words, I need to be able to change, say the 2nd repetition field of "Markup" to, say, "35%".

Thanks to anyone who can help!

[Lee Smith]

Hi knight, and welcome to the Forum.

It is not clear from your question, as to what you want this field to do. However, what Soren was trying to say, in his not so subtle way, is that instead of using repeating fields, try using a related file, or a value list.

Repeating fields are useful for many things, but most things are easier to accomplish by using the a relationship and a related file instead.

I'm not completely sure what it is you are wanting to do, and your question reads as if we came in to the middle of a conversation. Perhaps if you restate your question, it can help us help you.

Lee

[Søren Dyhr]

Don't use repeating fields at all, if you have it arranged as a portal would there hardly any efford to make your fields behave...

To put it as honestly as posible, would I only consider dealings with repeating fields with very few members in this forum - and thats because I'm sure they know what they're doing ...but they also have 10-15 years of expirence with filemaker.

I'm clearly the most frequent dissuader of the use of repeaters in this forum ...If you can trace down developers with expirience that can help you feel free to use them instead. But I feel I have an obligation to shout "Cul de sac" in pure damage control.

--sd