Help--Finding master records with AND operator in related record?

November 23, 200619 yr

Newbies

Hello there

I am new here so please forgive my ignorance but I could not find an answer to the following question when I searched the forum. My problem is actually a fairly simple one, although (obviously) the solution may not be all that simple.

Let’s assume I have two related databases (in Filemaker 6, I am afraid) a master database called “People” and another one called “Letters”. Letters can be of different types (eg, “Invitation” and “Rejection”) and will have a date associated with them. I would have several letters per person in the “Letters” database.

I have a portal in the “People” database displaying all the letters sent to a particular person. Performing a find on the fields displayed in this portal should allow me to find people who have had a certain type of letter from me on a particular date. Mind you, I am not after the individual letters here but after all matching records in the “People” database.

Example

“People” database:

1. Aaron

2. Bertha

3. Cornelius

...

“Letters” database:

A. Aaron--Invitation--2006-09-14

B. Aaron--Rejection--2005-03-07

C. Bertha--Invitation--2005-03-07

D. Cornelius--Invitation--2006-09-14

E. Cornelius--Invitation--2006-09-15

...

If I wanted to find people (through a portal row in the “People” database) whom I sent an invitation letter on 2005-03-07, Filemaker ought to turn up Bertha’s record (and it does). Unfortunately, it will also find Aaron although for him, the matches to my combined query are found in separate related records. Filemaker simply finds everyone who has been sent any type of letter on 2005-03-07, AND has also been sent an invitation at any other time. (This does not include Cornelius in the above example.)

Sorry for making this sound really complicated (English is not my mother tongue), and sorry for using such an old version of Filemaker--I am trying to work this out for colleagues of mine who have not yet managed to upgrade to the current version. Any helpful suggestions you guys might have would be really welcome. Thanks a lot!

Edited November 23, 200619 yr by Guest
Sorry, had made a mistake in the earlier post...