Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Printing Field Definitions
Now that you've learned how to add auto-enter and validation options to your fields, you
may want to have a list to keep track of what you've done. The Field Options window is the
best reference for the current set of options you've applied to fields, but if something goes
wrong with a calculation or auto-enter option, it helps to have a printed snapshot of your ori-
ginal settings so you can see if anything has changed. Even better, you can use the printout as
a map for putting things right. Or you can print a field list to send to an associate so she can
send you a file with the right bits of data to be imported into your database.
To print a list of a table's fields and their options, choose File→Manage→Database, switch
to the Tables tab and select the table, if needed and then click Print. The printout looks like
the field list, except that it's expanded to make room for
everything
about a field.
GEM IN THE ROUGH: USING THE INDEX AS A HOUSEKEEPING TOOL
The View Index window is useful when you want to quickly paste data that's already in another re-
cord, but it has another power-user trick up its sleeve—helping you search out and clean up oddball
values. For example, you might need to clean up the data in a Street Address field because users
have entered their own unique versions of street abbreviations: St, ST, Str, Stt, Bld, Boul, and other
creative variations. Here's how you could do the cleanup:
1. In Find mode, use the View Index feature to paste in a specific value (Stt, for example) and
then perform the Find to show all the records with that value. You'll end up with a found set
of just those records with the bad abbreviation.
2. Make sure you're still clicked into the Street Address field and then choose Records→Re-
place Field Contents. The Specify Calculation window appears.
3. Choose the “Replace with calculated result” option to show the Specify Calculation window.
In the calculation box, type
Substitute (Street Address; “Stt”; “St”)
. This formula tells
FileMaker to look inside the Street Address field and find all instances of “Stt” and then re-
place them with “St” instead. See
Text Editing Functions
for details on how this calculation
works.
4. Click OK to close the Specify Calculation window and then click Replace to perform the re-
place. The found set is clean.
5. View the field's index. The stray entry “Stt” is gone from the index.
Lather, rinse, and repeat for each bad abbreviation.
