I want to count the number of unique values for a field across all records. for example, if a field contains A,A,B,C,C,C,D,D,D,D (in a database of 10 records) then the desired result is 4. I would like the count for all records, even if viewing only a subset of records. Is there a simple way to accomplish this? Thanks much.

You can take a look at this thread but it is a summary report and does need to be sorted.

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/135476/

One way would be to define a value list based on the field, then use an unstored calculation of:

ValueCount ( ValueListItems ( Get ( FileName ) ; "YourValueList" ) )

Great suggestion Michael! ;)

LOL, it's a rather old trick.

Nice! thanks very much.

Sorry to divert the thread but do I understand correctly that formatting the printing of a tabular view layout is really kludgy, and often impossible, in filemaker? I'm finding that I need to export to excel to change header labels, repeat header row on pages, and specify document to one page width by N pages length. Or am I missing something obvious?

Try the List view?

it seems like i can edit headers and field attributes only in form view. is there a way to make those edits in List or Table view?

I am not sure what you are asking here. You can have a Header part in a layout, and whatever you place there in Layout mode will be printed at the top of each page.