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Working with related tables and files
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 396
See Creating relationships.
2. With the database open, choose File menu > Manage > Database.
3. In the Manage Database dialog box, click the Fields tab.
4. If your database contains more than one table, select the appropriate table from the Table
list.
5. Select an existing text, number, date, time, timestamp, or container field from the list of
existing fields, or define a new field.
6. Click Options (or double-click the field name).
7. In the Options for Field dialog box, click the Auto-Enter tab, then select Looked-up value.
8. In the Lookup for Field dialog box, choose the table the lookup will start with, and the table
from which the value will be copied.
• For Starting with table, choose the table that the lookup will use as its starting point in
the relationships graph.
• For Lookup from related table choose the related table from which the related data
will be looked up.
9. Select the field from which the lookup value will be copied.
10. Select options for the lookup.
11. Click OK.
12. Repeat steps 5-11 for each additional field for which you want to define a lookup.
Notes about defining lookups
• You can define a relationship for a lookup when you define the database tables or the
lookup.
• The relationship can sort the related records so that the first related record (the record the
lookup will copy) is a particular record. For example, to look up the most recent check-out
date for a particular piece of equipment, sort records in descending order by check-out date.
• Be sure the lookup source field and lookup target field are the same field type, otherwise
you might get unexpected results.
• To change a lookup, be sure Looked-up value is selected in the Auto-Enter options, click
Specify, then make your changes.
• To stop or suspend using a lookup, clear Looked-up value in the Auto-Enter options.
• When data in the related table changes and you want the current table to contain the new
values, you can look up the data again. See
Updating lookup values.
To Do this
Specify an action when values in the
match fields do not match exactly
For If no exact match, then, select an option to copy no
value, copy the next lower or next higher value that's in the
lookup source field, or enter a fixed value to be used instead.
Prevent null (empty) data in the
lookup source field from being
copied to the lookup destination
field
Select Don't copy contents if empty. (Clear this option to
allow empty data to be copied.)