Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Grouped Exports
You may have noticed the “Group by” list in the “Specify Field Order for Export” dialog
box. Under normal circumstances, you see “(Unsorted)” in this list. But if you sort the re-
cords in the found set
before
choosing the Export Records command, you see instead a list of
the fields in your sort order, each with a checkbox by its name. You can see this in action in
Figure 21-11. When your data is sorted, FileMaker shows the sort fields in the “Group by” list. By
turning on one or more of these checkboxes, you tell FileMaker you want to group the data in the
export file.
If you opt to group the data, you get just one record in the export file for each
unique
value in
the “group by” field. For example, if you export 300 people records, grouped by state, you
get one record for each state. If you include
summary
fields in your Export order list,
FileMaker summarizes all the records represented by each group. You can see, for example,
how many people you have in each state.
You're free to select as many fields as you want in the “group by” list. If you select more
than one, you get a hierarchical list of records, similar to a Subsummary report (
Chapter 15
).
For example, if you sort first by state, then by city, and turn on the checkbox next to both
fields in the “group by” list, you get a list of states, and below each state, you see one record
for each city in that state. Again, summary fields included in your export show proper totals
for both the state as a whole and each city.
