Conditional Formatting (Another field "Contains" data)

[Advaera]

Hello FMForums!

I'm a recent convert from Access to Filemaker Pro so I'm still trying to grasp just how different the two platforms are. So please excuse me if I say things that sound weird.

I'm working in a layout right now and I'm trying to create conditional formatting to make certain fields visible depending on another field.

It's a little tricky though, the source field draws data from a Value List and is set to function as a Checkbox Set. Basically what I have is a day selector, I'm setting up whether this particular task is done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc... So some tasks are one day a week, others are seven days a week.

In my layout I'm trying to configure it so that if "Monday" is checked in the "Days" Field that the "Monday" field will become visible.

So Tasks::Days = "Monday" works fine as long as "Monday" is the only day checked in the days field. Once the Days field has Monday, Wednesday, and Friday checked, this obviously doesn't work.

I know that if the conditional formatting is referencing it's own field there is a "Contains" option. I'm hoping to find something similar to set the Monday-Sunday fields so they can check the Days field for if it "Contains" a certain day and either become visible or invisible based on this. This way a single task can have multiple fields either visible or invisible depending on the checkbox field.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

[comment]

First, have a look at the PatternCount() function. Next, take a look at the FilterValues() function.

Finally - and most importantly - have another look at your structure, because if you have fields named Monday, Tuesday, etc. you are probably doing something wrong.

[Advaera]

I could be looking at this too much like it's Access, so feel free to recommend a better way of accomplishing the same task.

Basically what needs to happen is that we need the database to generate a report that can be handed out to those performing the tasks. So if this task is done on a Tuesday, then we want the report to display our Tuesday field which only contains the sign off block (basically a checkbox and a spot to initial, looks something like ( )_______ ) for the person who actually completes the task to sign off that they have completed it. We don't want there to be sign off blocks on days where the task isn't done because that confuses people. So basically there is a column for every day of the week where a sign off block should appear depending on whether or not that day of the week has been checked in the Days field.

PatternCount returned a value of 1 when set to look for Tuesday... I might be able to mess with some logic and get it to convert that to a true to make the formatting kick in.

Thank you much for the input! And please do let me know if this sounds like I'm doing it the wrong way, or if there's an easier/better way to accomplish this.

[comment]

So basically there is a column for every day of the week where a sign off block should appear depending on whether or not that day of the week has been checked in the Days field.

Filemaker is not very good at creating columns on-the-fly, but perhaps you could do something like the attached?

DOWcolumns.fp7.zip