i have a database with a repeating field. i made a report that has this repeating field included. the problem is i want to sort this report by the individual data inside these fields and it will only sort by the first piece of data in the repeating field.

is there any sort of trick or script i can do to get filemaker to read these fields separately for sorting purposes OR is there a way i can get excel to read all of the data in the repeating field as opposed to just the top piece of info?

let me know if any more information is needed from me.

thanks!

The solution should have been using related records instead, this means that each data in a repeating field needs to go to it's own related record, and then shown in a portal, portals can be sorted to your hearts desires.

Countless novices have stumbled over this problem before you, repeating fields should unfortunately be reserved for other purposes than storing user reachable data.

But I hate that believes here includes a notion of tricks as requirement, since all is about method, no matter how complex a situation might be, couldn't "Deus ex machina" really be the matter, everything although the permutations seemingly are vast, does it fall back on method it's approached with!

No-one compiles a dictionary of tricks to make something with databases, but instead do they humble themselves to apply logic, how irritating though it might seem at first.

--sd

I have run into the same problem. You can export a flat file, such as csv or tab delimited and use a text editor such as BBEdit to clean up the file and then open in Excel. Alternately (on a Mac at least) you can export as an HTML file. Open in your browser. Select the table and copy and paste into Excel. You will still need to clean up your columns but it's better than nothing.

Cheers,