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Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal

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On Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:33:44 +1200, Your Name wrote:
>  unfortunately there's a hiccup here - you can't have a Calculation field
>  on the right hand side of a Relationship since it can't be indexed (this
>  may depend on what version of FileMaker you're using). That means the Calc
>  field must instead be a normal Text field which uses an auto-enter
>  calculation to obtain the result, but only once data has been entered into
>  the Name field - the options for an auto-enter calculation are meant to do
>  this, but are a bit flakey, so it's usually best to do it yourself.

Has there ever been any FMP version which did not permit to save and
index its value?

It's true for calculations which did include a related value, but for a
local left(name,1) it has always been possible to save and index its
value.

>                auto-enter by calculation:
>                    If(IsEmpty(Name); ""; Left(Name;1))
> 
>  This way Calc remains empty while Name is empty, and FileMaker will
>  perform the auto-enter calculation once Name has data entered into it.
>  (Normally FileMaker will perform auto-enter options when the record is
>  created.)

not necessary - as long as name is empty, it won't be calculated. And
even if it would, the result of left() on an empty field would return
the value empty.

>  This then causes a second problem - because Calc is a normal Text field,
>  this also means that when the data is changed in the Name field, the Calc
>  data will need to be changed either manually or via a script.

.... or via the simpe checkbox option to recalculated the auto enter
value on changing a field value.

>  What I normally do in similar situations is create another field called
>  OldName which is a normal Text field with an auto-enter calculation to
>  copy the data from Name (again, only after it actually has some data).
>  e.g.
>        OldName    Text
>                   auto-enter by calculation:
>                       If(IsEmpty(Name); ""; Name)
> 
>  Then you can have a Calculation field that checks to see if both Name and
>  OldName contain the same data ... if not the field can display a warning
>  (either tect of graphically).
>  e.g.
>        ChangedName    Calculation, Text Result, Unstored
>           = If(Name = OldName; ""; "Name has been changed!")

Possible, but I do not see any profit from this here.

I guess one of the possible reasons is, what you detected before me:
storage of left(name,1) was actually done as a global storage value, by
mistake.

- Martin

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Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Katie Blake <kathlynblake@gmail.com> - 2011-09-25 17:43 -0700
  Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2011-09-26 04:45 +0000
  Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal yourname@yourisp.com (Your Name) - 2011-09-26 18:33 +1200
    Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2011-09-26 06:43 +0000
      Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal yourname@yourisp.com (Your Name) - 2011-09-27 09:07 +1200
        Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Katie Blake <kathlynblake@gmail.com> - 2011-09-28 01:03 -0700
  Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2011-09-26 06:51 +0000
    Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Katie Blake <kathlynblake@gmail.com> - 2011-09-26 00:41 -0700
      Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2011-09-26 08:40 +0000
  Re: Alphabetic pick list using self join and portal cortical <cb@corticaldata.com.au> - 2011-10-01 09:22 +0930

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