Say a text field [field1] contains more than one value [from a value list]. I want to set up a conditional (IF) calculation. But instead of looking for an equality or a non-equality, is there a way to have FMP look to see if a field is NOT EQUAL or UNEQUAL to a certain value, but if a field CONTAINS a certain value or text string?

In other words, let's say field1 contains the values: "CC" & "paragraph" & "BP". I am only interested in whether or not the field contains "CC" irrespective of any other value it may also contain. However, the way I would normally set this up is say: IF field1 = "CC"; but, in this case, I would not get a TRUE response, even though the field CONTAINS "CC", because it is not actually EQUAL to "CC". It is EQUAL to "CC" & "paragraph" & "BP".

I've had a few false starts and have tried a few things; but nothing yet. I'm thinking I may have to take this value list and divide it into a number of different fields, instead of one field containing anything chosen from the value list. Is this the only way to go?

Any ideas?

Try:

position(¶ & field & ¶; "¶CC¶"; 1; 1)

This will return a 0 if the value CC is not in there, and an integer greater than 0 if it is. This can be used in boolean logic without problems:

case(position(¶ & field & ¶; "¶CC¶"; 1; 1) ; "Value exists")

Is this a Text Function? I will check it out. Thanks. Never use these functions much. Not sure I exactly understand how this works; but I should be able to figure it out.

Thanks again.

Just wanted Ender to know that his/ her suggestion was a good one! Instead of doing exactly what he/ she suggested, I studied the "case" and "position" functions and realized that these were exactly what I needed! I was able to come up with a working solution based on this lead; so thanks again!

CL