Stupid finding empty fields question!

[SerenDigital]

I'm trying to find all the records that don't have a number in a particular field. I looked at the filemaker help guide online, and it says to put a "=" in the field that you want to find empty records for.

But it just tells me that no records match my criteria? I KNOW that there are records there that don't have anything in the boxes, because if I use the opposite search "*" then it only brings up about half, so therefore the other half of records should show up with the "=" search?

I'm not explaining myself very well, but hopefully someone can clue me in to what I'm doing wrong!

[SerenDigital]

It's ok, figured out a workaround using the "omit" field!

[CobaltSky]

Glad you've found a band-aid, SerenDigital. However it's probable that something is amiss and you should look into it further.

If entering an = sign on its own as the find criteria does not locate records in which the field is empty, then that may indicate a corrupt index on the field you were searching.

I suggest you turn indexing explicitly off for the field, close the file, then open it and turn indexing back on and then try your find again (the index will be rebuilt). Chances are that will correct the problem. :)

[cdg]

Your database failing to find empty fields leads me to wonder. The following is a type of problem that can easily occur:

Let's say you have a stamp collection, and you want to keep records of your stamps in a database. In the database is a table that holds entries for any stamp that you have had officially published (I'm just making this up to describe a possible situation), meaning stamps that you have officially had listed as belonging to your collection.

You have not published all your stamps, and you have only made entries in this table for the stamps that you have published.

Realize that if you ever go to this table and attempt to lookup all the stamps which you have not had published, if you enter an equal sign in the "published" field in a Find search, the result will be a No Records Match This Criteria message, because there are no entries meeting that criteria. You need to make an entry for all stamps, then update the entry when you publish a stamp.

Again, I don't know whether you have run into this, but it can happen and be very frustrating and confusing to diagnose, after all, you know you have stamps that are in the database that are not listed as published... :