Hi all

I'm trying to utilise the NOT EXISTS command:

I need to find records in the Cases table that do not have matching records in the Originals table.

So far I have:

SELECT a.Case_ID
FROM Cases a
WHERE a.Closed IS NULL 
AND
NOT EXISTS
    (SELECT * 
     FROM Originals b
     WHERE b.Case_IDF = a.Case_ID)

            
It just freezes when I try this though. Could it be that because there are a lot of records in each table? I will be using additional criteria - not sure if this would improve performance if this is the case.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Most likely it is because "NOT EXISTS" is not supported in FM's SQL syntax.  Check the list of supported functions and keywords.

I found a sample of "EXISTS" in ExecuteSQL here (the example file from SkeletonKey):

http://www.skeletonkey.com/executesql-function-filemaker-12-web-series-follow-up-q-a/

These links may also be helpful:

http://www.w3resource.com/sql/special-operators/sql_exists.php

 

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/exists-and-not-exists-subqueries.html

 

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2007/05/18/60210.aspx

 

beverly

 

It looks, if I am reading this correctly, that you may just have a syntax problem. Each of the examples I've seen, EXISTS is only used directly after a where clause.

Have got a script trigger to set a flag field in the parent table if no records existing in the child table, then just use a simpler SQL command. It took far too long to do it all in SQL.

Cheers guys