VISUAL QUICKPRO GUIDE FileMaker Pro 7 Advanced FOR WINDOWS AND MACINTOSH [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Creating an "Inverted" Search

You probably know that you can omit records from an existing found set. However, you can also use the process of elimination to create a found set made up only of records that don't match the Find criteria. Imagine that you're projecting your average monthly sales for a bank loan. You don't necessarily want to include the month you closed up shop and snorkeled in the Bahamas, so you'd want to create a report that omitted that period from the found set.

You can even create a single search that selects certain records and omits others. This combination lets you eliminate your vacation period while selecting only corporate purchase orders from the rest of the year's records.

To omit records from a search

1 .Switch to the layout you want to use for the search, then choose View > Find Mode (Control+F/Command+F).

2 .Enter the search criteria you want to eliminate from the found set in the appropriate fields.

3. In the status area, check the Omit box (Figure 5.8), then click Find.

The records that meet the search criteria will be omitted from the found set. In our example, the result would be a list of sales that excluded activity in the month of April.

To select and omit at the same time

1. Switch to the layout you want to use for the search, then choose View > Find Mode (Control+F/Command+F).

2. Enter the search criteria for the records you want to find in the appropriate fields.

3 .Choose Requests > Add New Request (Control+N/Command+N). Enter the search criteria for the records you want to eliminate from the search results, then click the Omit box. Click Find.

The found set will display the records that meet the first search criteria (purchase orders, for example) but won't contain the records that also meet the criteria in the second request.

Chapter 7, "Creating Simple Scripts."