A Curious thing I have recently noted while using Filemaker 11 Advanced:

 

1. I enter a question mark (?) into a text field.

 

2. I then enter the "Find" mode.

 

3. I then enter a question mark (?) into the text field and execute the search for the question mark.  The result, I get a Filemaker intercept telling me "No records match this search criteria".

 

4. However, If I enter a question mark surrounded by quotes ("?"), the search is successful.

 

Is this a known problem (to others) for which I need a work around for scripting purposes?

A ? without quotes is a filemaker search operator for finding records with an invalid character in that field:

 

 

You can see the full list of operators here:

 

http://www.filemaker.com/11help/html/find_sort.5.6.html#1027771

? is the invalid to FM.  If you search for ? in date field, it will find any invalid dates.

 

To search for ? in a text field, you need to search for ?