"${" appearing in front of some calculations referenced

[AlanP]

I just noticed this when I add a calculation reference in another calculation:

Case ( 

${ALERT: Test Due}="True"; "Test Due"; 

ALERT: Paper Due="True"; "Paper Due";

)

So that ${ appears in front of some but not others...any idea what it is? If I remove it, it won't work. I couldn't find an answer searching quickly...thanks!

Edited February 28, 2008 by Guest

[Fenton]

It means that FileMaker was not happy with one of your field names, because you used a special character in it, which might interfere when used in calculations. So FileMaker escaped the name with this special syntax ${funky name}

In this case it looks like the colon. You'd be better to name the field, "ALERT_Test Due" or similar. Then the ${} will disappear on its own.

[AlanP]

OK I'll try that...it was fine with the other calculations that had the colon in it, however, this is just recently happened (there are lots with the : in it for the alerts)

[Fenton]

Well, when I create one just like yours FileMaker doesn't say anything, and doesn't put the brackets, not even in a calculation. So who knows why it used the escape syntax?

That is weird that it doesn't work if you remove them. Oh, you have to remove them from the field name itself, not inside the calculation; that will happen automatically if you rename the field. Is that what you did?

Edited February 28, 2008 by Guest

[AlanP]

Ah...ok here is what happened...I forgot to put this in my example. In the actual referenced calculation it was named:

ALERT: Test-Due (for example)

as soon as I removed the hyphen it worked within the other calculation that referenced it and didn't add brackets.

Thanks Fenton for your help!

[Lee Smith]

FileMaker does not like - (hyphens) in field names. Or, any of the operators for that matter, and it should have given you a warning when you created the Field.

Lee

Edited February 28, 2008 by Guest

[mr_vodka]

I would probably stay away from the characters like the colon as well. Also if you start your field name with a number I blieve it does it as well.