User manual

5-4 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
About choosing a field type
When you define a field, you must select the appropriate field type.
FileMaker Pro uses the field type to interpret the data for tasks like
sorting and performing calculations.
Keep these points in mind:
1 Use text fields instead of number fields to store postal codes, phone
numbers, and other values with leading zeroes or characters like
hyphens or parentheses.
1 Be sure to use a Date field (instead of a text or number field) to
store dates. To avoid confusion when using dates, always use four-
digit years. For more information on how FileMaker Pro 5 handles
Year 2000 issues, see www.filemaker.com.
1 You can’t find or sort records based on a container field, but you
can define a text field to describe or identify the contents of the
container. Then, you can find or sort records based on the data in the
text field.
1 To change the way data is displayed in text, number, date, and time
fields, see “Formatting field data on a layout” on page 6-21.
Select this
field type If the field data will be
Text Up to approximately 64,000 letters, symbols, or numbers used as
text.
Number Up to 255 numbers or other characters. (In most cases, only the
numbers are treated as numeric.) Number fields can’t contain
carriage returns.
Date Dates only.
Time Times only.
Container A picture, or a multimedia file (like a movie or sound). You can
reference container fields in calculations and summary fields.
Windows: A container field can store OLE objects.
Calculation The result of a calculation formula that uses field values from the
current record or related records. The formula can use values of
all field types. The result can be one of these types of data: text,
number, date, time, or container.
Summary A value that’s produced by summarizing field values from more
than one record in the same file.
Global One value to be used in all records of the file. A global field can
contain text, number, date, time, or container data. Use the value
of a global field in calculations and scripts. You can’t use a
global field to find records.
Agent Item Qty Amount
David Michaels ET3 1 $29.95
David Michaels ET4 1 $32.25
David Michaels ET1 2 $73.90
David Michaels ET5 3 $98.85
Total $234.95
Sophie Tang ET6 2 $64.50
Sophie Tang ET7 5 $12.50
Sophie Tang ET2 2 $25.00
Sophie Tang
Total $102.00
Grand Total $336.95
Sales Report
Calculation fields produce results from values
in the current record or related records
Summary fields produce
results from values in
multiple records