finding variable fields

[WC Howard]

Greetings!

I have four files related for a purchase order scheme; line items, orders, vendors and products. The whole thing works well except for one thing, and that is the vendor part number. Each vendor's part number is stored in the products file under their own field, and I can't figure out how to get FM (6 Dev. now, upgrading to 8.5 soon) to find the right field for line items file to make the print out and/or export for Excel.

The match field in Line Items to Products is the company part number, and is used to get the field "product" (describing what the product is, such as "nail" or "clock"). My problem here is so many vendors and getting is to read from the matching vendor's field.

I've tried to create a calculation for a calculation (Products:(Orders::Vendor)), but so far haven't been able to figure out how to get the right field to display. The calculation box won't let me do this kind of calculation.

Anybody have an idea?

[Søren Dyhr]

Dynamic valuelist seems to be the cure here, see if you can get ideas by studying this template:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/144580/

--sd

[WC Howard]

This may be the way, but I need a little help in understanding it (and I do thank you for sending that file, it does indeed give ideas)... What is the "vertical" character you keep using and what is it's function, and, I don't understand the paragraph character in the one calculation... could you please elaborate?

I had to look up the meaning of the Case function, something I'd never used before...