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Creating a database
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 163
Defining automatic data entry
Defining field validation
Opening files protected with passwords
Checking spelling
Creating scripts to automate tasks
Setting up script triggers
Defining database tables
Use database tables to organize and group your data by common characteristics or principles. Your
database can contain as many tables as you need to organize your data (limited only by the amount
of storage space on your hard disk).
By default, a new file contains a table with the same name as the file. This table can later be
renamed or deleted.
Tables you add to a file are automatically displayed in the relationships graph.
To define a table:
1. With the database open, choose File menu > Manage > Database.
2. In the Manage Database dialog box, click the Tables tab.
3. Type a name for the table, then click Create.
4. Continue to define tables, or click the Fields tab to define fields.
To change a table name:
1. With the database open, choose File menu > Manage > Database.
2. In the Manage Database dialog box, click the Tables tab.
3. Select the table you want to rename from the list.
4. In the Table Name field, type a new name for the table, then click Change.
5. Click OK.
Notes
• When you change a table name, FileMaker Pro updates all references to the table
throughout your calculations, relationships, scripts, table occurrences, and so on.
• If you are using FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can consolidate the tables from a multi-file
solution into a single file using the Copy/Paste or Import commands. Only the table
schema
is copied or imported, not the data. See Copying or importing table schemas (FileMaker Pro
Advanced). To import the data with the schema, choose File menu > Import Records >
File. See Importing data into FileMaker Pro.
Important In addition to storing data, FileMaker Pro uses tables to describe relationships in the
relationships graph, and establish the
context for layouts and some calculations. For information
about relationships, see Working with related tables and files. For information on the relationships
graph, see Working with the relationships graph. For information on creating layouts, see Creating
and managing layouts and reports.
• If your database references external ODBC data sources (ESS), links to ODBC tables can
break in FileMaker
Pro if table names change in the ODBC data sources. You can click Re-