Good day All,

I have Filemaker Pro V5 and created a database for students. The file has tow fileds with 4 repetitions titled Date In and Date Out. I need to do calculation as following.

Date IN _____________Date Out (MM/DD/YY)
01/01/2004 ___________01/31/2004 **
02/01/2004
03/01/2004
04/01/2004

** First repetition on Date Out is second repetition value form the Date IN file – 1 day and the second repetition on Date Out is third repetition value from the Date IN file – 1 day and so on and the last one I Need to enter manually.

Thanks everyone

Hi, S!

I'm afraid I don't know repeating field values very well. I believe they were incorporated into FM before it had relational capability, so working with fields with multiple values is somewhat limited.

If you decide to change them to 8 separate fields (4 IN + 4 OUT) or make the system relational, it should be easy. I think FM will let you calculate "the day before" by just subtracting "1" from the previous date...

date1out = date2in - 1

I think if you are going to manually enter date4out, don't make it a calculation field.

I could be wrong about repeating fields, but I haven't seen any examples of anyone doing what you want. Sorry!
--ST

(Edited to fix formula --ST)

Thanks ST for respond

I read that the FileMaker Pro V.7 has new calculation that might help doing the repeating filed value. I will download the trial version and post the result.

Saloomm

I know its easy to create them and use them but REALLY pay attention to the limits in repeating field definitions. This is one example where the data should be individual fields tied to the user so the calculations are easy to create and modify. How do you do a summary on these fields?
How can you build portal options based on a repetition?
There are lots of cons to repeating fields. Make sure you understand that before you use them.
Yes v7 has more options. Will it do what's needed? Not sure . . .

Yes, it is true that repeating feilds were introduced into FileMaker prior to version 3.0. In most cases cases you want to create a portal instead of a repeating field. If you already have a repeating field full of data it is possible to create a script to move the data from a repeating fild into a portal (look at the GetRepetion function).

If you in face only need four rows of data and you never need to work with other databases, then you may want to look at using the Extend function to make you calcualtions work through the different repetitions.

FileMaker has added a few new features to repeating fields, but they are still very limited and should only be used in specifc cases...

Thanks,


Joe