Find ONLY single option (checkbox) records

[mvincenti]

I have a table with people and the activities that each person participates in. The activities are a value list displayed as checkboxes. People can participate in more than one activity so (as checkboxes), I can check off multiple activities. How can I find all people who play soccer only- not all people who play soccer AND baseball. (I will eventually put this found set and display it in a list).

I think this is a really basic question but I just can't get it.

Thanks in advance!

[Vaughan]

Secrch for "==soccer" where the double equal sign instructs FMP to return records where the entire contents of the field matches the criteria.

But really, storing multiple activities in a single field isn't good data design. The activities should be in a related table.

[mvincenti]

Ah!! Thank you!! I had a feeling that I shouldn't be doing this with value lists. I will try to script out a "find" solution until version 2 of this database is developed. I will use the "==" like you said in the mean time. Thanks again!!

[Filarias]

Vaughan,

I came across several questions regarding similar "finding" and "counting" problems referring to entries based on value lists - and the suggestion of expert members is the same: create related tables. I am some kind of mentally "blocked", could you explain the basic thought behind this? I apologize for the absolute newbie's question..

[Vaughan]

Read up on data normalisation, and first normal form. Basically, a field should contin only one piece of information.