Zero records

[fmsavey]

Let me preface this with saying I am using FM9.0v3 on a brand new iMac 24".

I started to create a solution to help me with my mortgage. After having created some fields I went into browse mode to test some of what I had already done. I immediately noticed a question mark (?) in some of the calculated fields even though I did not add a record. I then added data into my global fields to calculate the payment that would be used by records in the database. As soon as I did that I noticed values being displayed in the calculated fields even though I haven't added a record yet. I've been using FM for a whole bunch of years, albeit on PC'S, but don't recall ever seeing this.

Attached are images of the field definition window and the layout window.

Anyone else ever experience this?

[Fenton]

Yeah, that looks kind of odd. But I think it's normal. Global fields do not belong to any particular record, hence retain their values even if there are not records. You've set one of your calculations to Global storage (which may or may not be correct, I can't read your jpg, it's too small), so that calculation would display. And it looks like other calculations which reference the globals and are unstored also display.

It also seems as if your layout, despite having a Header (I assume, by the color change), is in Form view. Does it also display that "row" in List view?

You could post your file here, and others could look at it.

Take a look here, for a very nice Mortgage file, by Steve Wilmes:

http://www.swconsulting.net/whatwedo/filemaker/index.asp

[fmsavey]

The layout view is "List". I have done a little more work on this file and I am convince that there is something wrong, but I won't know for sure until I get to my office and work on it there in more familiar workspace.

What I am seeing should not be happening. The results of a calculation should not take place when there are no records, even if that calculation references a global field either in form few or list view.

I went ahead and began to create new records which represented each payment that is being made. By the time I got to adding the 15th record it was taking more then one minute to add a record. Finally out of frustration I deleted all 15 records, which took about 8 minutes to do.

I'll take this up on Monday when I get to work.

[comment]

It seems something *is* wrong with your file - but I doubt it has to do with what you're showing us. You would expect to see that in Form view with calculations relying entirely on global fields.