Relationship Output on Empty Field Contents

[Hijack]

This seems like a topic that has probably come up in the past but I'll post it now since I can't see anything similar in recent posts....

Is there a way to make FileMaker display related records when the join fields are both empty? Ex: gData is the global source selector and the related table has a "Data" field in it of various values, some of which may be empty. When gData is empty, is there a way to get the relationship to show records from the related table where the "Data" field is empty?

It would be nice if FM had wildcard special characters like * or ? to variate the relationship parent field to pull a range of related records when the relationship is a text join.

Thanks all.

David

FM v8.5 Advanced

[Ender]

You can't match on an empty value, so instead you would create a calculated key for both sides, where the parent key is:

case(isempty(gData);"zzzAll";gData)

and the match key is:

Data & "¶zzzAll"

Or if you prefer, have the calc look for a wildcard character instead of an empty field.

[Hijack]

Thank you very much for the direction. That works pretty well even though the child relationship anchors are calculations. I guess because the calc contents are exclusively indexable text, it still works.

The only drawback is that you can't create related records through such a relationship since the child anchors are calcs. No biggy. I can add a tab and call it "Browse Only" I suppose.

Thanks again. I'll put that in the mental hopper for future use.

David in Fishers Indiana

Edited October 27, 2006 by Guest