Compare fileds help

[LorisGreycom]

Hello all.

I have been using FM Pro for many years now, by creating simple databases for keeping my customers info, invoicing and general office stuff.

I'm currently using FM Pro 14 Advanced.

I 'm at a dead end now, trying to edit an existing database. What I'm trying to do is:

I have a list of serial numbers of products I have received in past days. These numbers are stored in an existing value list called "Tested". I also have a field called "Unit Serial", where I punch the serial number of the incoming product. What I need is, if the entry of this field exists in the value list, to get a warning message saying that this product has been tested before. If the entry does not exist in the value list, I want to proceed with what I have to do with no warnings.

Thank you in advance for any help provided.

 

Loris

[comment]

It's not clear what you mean by "to proceed with what I have to do". If the process is scripted, you can interrupt it by showing a custom dialog if:

not IsEmpty ( FilterValues ( YourTable::Unit Serial ; ValueListItems ( Get ( FileName ); "Tested" ) ) )

Alternatively, you could validate the field by the negation of the above expression.

--
P.S. I am not sure a value list is the best place to store data.

[LorisGreycom]

Hello and thank you for your reply and the info provided.

"to proceed with what I have to do" is not related to the Database, sorry for the confusion. I meant reply to my customer accordingly.

I can script the process, following your suggestion.

What would you recommend for data storage?

 

Thank you once again.

 

Loris

 

 

 

[comment]

1 minute ago, LorisGreycom said:

What would you recommend for data storage?

Tables, records and fields.

I am not sure what your exact workflow is, but suppose you have a global field where you enter the serial number of a product, you could use a relationship to a table of Tests to show you any existing records in that table having the same product serial number.

[LorisGreycom]

You supposed correctly. It's a rather small database, of give-or-take 12,000 records of small amounts of data (fields). The serial numbers of the products in the value list so far are no more than 50.

You are right, a Table is the way to go, I should have thought of it since I have done so on a different, larger file.

 

I will give it a go and let you know how it went.

 

Thank you once again for your replies.

 

Loris

[LorisGreycom]

Hi again.

 

I'm sorry to say that it did not work. Not saying that you 've made a mistake, but there's must be something I'm missing. No matter what I do, even if the input in "Unit Serial" matches "Tested" or if they are different, I get the same error message.

Ah, the bad luck of the amateur.

 

Thank you anyway.

 

Loris

 

[comment]

2 hours ago, LorisGreycom said:

No matter what I do,

But we don't know what you do...

Have a look at the attached file - it shows 3 methods of checking if the entered unit has been tested before.

test.fp7

[LorisGreycom]

Wow, thank you, this is extremely nice of you. I will go over the file and see what I did wrong. I'm sure it's a small detail, which obviously counts!

 

I really appreciate your time, a million thanx!

 

Loris