data from related records in a field

[William Mead]

Hi is there a way to create a field that will take the data from related records, and put it in the field with commas separating the info from each related record?

Here is the situation: I am building a database that uses portals to keep track of things like product categories offered by companies in each record, and another portal with notes or comments that we gather over time.

I need to be able to export all of this to a flat file fairly often, and when I do, I just want one field with all the products/services offered by a company in one field (separated by commas) and all the comments that have been gathered over time in another field (preferably with date and time stamp).

Is there another way of thinking about this that I have missed?

[mr_vodka]

Arghhh too bad you dont have 8.5 where you could have used the List funtion.

You can use a value list to get the related records and then use ValueListItems to retrieve the related data. If you do use this method, please keep in mind that if you have duplicate data, a value list will remove the dups as well as sorting it alphabetically. So you may need to compesate for that.

Also you may want to take a look at this custom function. With a slight modification you can change it to be comma seperated rather than pilcrow.

http://www.briandunning.com/cf/439

A third option would be to create a loop on the related records and gather the data that way.

[William Mead]

That custom function is perfect! Thank you for pointing it out!

[nik.be]

I have the same problem as William. However I use FM 8 Pro, not advanced. I therefore cannot create "custom functions". I cannot use the Value List either since the field I try to collect from conatins links to ustored data and cannot be set differently.

Any other idea? Can I use parts of the custom function above in a calculation field?

Thanks

Nik

[Søren Dyhr]

I have the same problem as William

But you should have access to this one instead:

http://www.filemaker.com/help/Functions%20Ref4.html

...or was it with fm8.5?

--sd

[mr_vodka]

No it only came about in 8.5.

[mr_vodka]

There were three suggestions. ???

[Søren Dyhr]

No it only came about in 8.5.

Thanks John, alright then is it a scripted solution where you turn to a layout with the one field shown, etc. But beware of saving the clipboard on the users behalf ...every (i think?) method are shown in this template. You can ignore the initial warning but only the Copy All... button will work in your case.

http://www.filemakerpros.com/GetNthRecordTAIL.zip

--sd

[nik.be]

Thanks for all the comments above. In the ned I have decided to try the list function on a trial version of FM 8.5. It works exactly as it should and it is very easy to use. I have therefore decised to invest in the latest version of FM.

Thanks

Nik