Searching Through Database

[nabel19]

Hi , i'm new to this, thanks for taking your time .. what i am trying to do is i have file maker 11 trial and have a database of about 50,000 names, contact info adress and so on .. what i want to do is search through the contact names in a fast way and group them all together on one list , for example .. i would search the database for .. joe, tim, kevin, bob , ray , and have all the results on one list ... the only way i know how to do it now is through find , add then request and extend found set but it is way to time consuming , also to write a script is it possible and how would i do it.

[innodat]

You could place a few global fields in the header of your list which you can use as "filters". Five fields for up to five first names. All of these field would have a value list specified showing all first names of database with "auto complete" enabled.

You could then grab the content of each one of these global fields with the help of an exit field script trigger and perform a search based on that very value. The script tied to the first field would be and normal "find", the remaining ones "extend found set".

I imagine with this set-up you could get your list in under ten seconds.

You would also need a reset button which removes the content from the global fields and shows all records. If you want to go crazy you could program it in a way that the user can "undo" each filter selection. Simpler is to reset them all at once.