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Working with related tables and files
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ILEMAKER PRO HELP 374
Working with related tables and files
FileMaker Pro uses related tables as the basis for relational databases and lookups. Relational
databases allow you to work with data from other tables dynamically, so that you can change data in
one place and your changes are reflected in all places where the related data appears.
Use relational databases to:
• See and work with data from another (or the current) table in its most up-to-date state. For
example, you can display data in related fields when you need current data from a related
table, such as the current price of an item.
• Set up and manage data efficiently and with flexibility. Instead of creating many database
tables or files with duplicate values, you store single occurrences of values and use
relationships to make those values available. You can then make changes to data in only
one place, which eliminates data duplication and promotes data accuracy.
• Save disk space, because data is stored in only one place.
For information about creating relationships, see Creating relationships.
Lookups let you copy data from one table to another; once looked-up data has been inserted, it does
not change unless you edit it or tell FileMaker
Pro to look it up again.
Use lookups to:
• Copy data from a related table and keep it as copied, even when the related data changes.
For example, use a lookup to copy the price of an item at the time of purchase into an
Invoice table. Even if the price in the related table changes, the price in the Invoice table
stays the same.
Notes
• The related table could be within the same file, a FileMaker data source, or an external
ODBC data source. For information about choosing the data source, see
Adding tables to
the relationships graph. For more information about working interactively with data in SQL
tables, see Accessing external data sources.
• All FileMaker Pro tables used in your database must be in FileMaker Pro 12 format. Files
created with earlier versions of FileMaker
Pro must be converted to the current version first.
See
Converting files from FileMaker Pro 11 and earlier.
Related topics
About planning a database
Adding tables to the relationships graph
Creating relationships
About relationships
A relationship is a powerful method for organizing your data. Using a relationship, you can join data
in one or more tables based on common field values, different field values, or a comparison of
values in two or more fields.
After you create a relationship, you can do either of the following to display the data from the related
table:
• Design a relational database, which is one or more tables in one or more files that, when
used together, contain all the data you need for your work. Each occurrence of data is
stored in only one table at a time but can be accessed and displayed from any related table.
You can change any occurrence of your related data, and the changes appear in all places
where that related data is used.