Functions Reference

174 FileMaker Functions Reference
Examples
PatternCount(“Mississippi”;“is”) returns 2.
PatternCount(“Mississippi”;“issi”) returns 1 (the function isn’t inclusive).
PatternCount(Attending;“Guest”) returns 1 if the Guest checkbox is one of the
items selected in the Attending field.
Position
Format
Position(text;searchString;start;occurrence)
Parameters
text - any text expression or text field
searchString - any text expression or text field representing the set of characters you
want to find.
start - any numeric expression, or field containing a number, representing the number
of characters from the start of the text string at which to begin the search.
occurrence - any numeric expression or field containing a number, representing which
instance of the text string you want to find. A negative occurrence value causes the scan
to go in the opposite direction from start. A zero value for occurrence is invalid and returns
a result of zero.
Data type returned
number
Description
Returns the starting position of the specified occurrence of searchString in text. If
searchString isn’t contained in text or if there was no specified occurrence, zero is
returned. The Position function is not case-sensitive.
Examples
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;1;1) returns 2.
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;1;2) returns 5.
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;3;1) returns 5.
Left(Name;Position(Name;“ “;1;1)-1) returns William, when Name is a text
field that contains William Smith.
Right(Name;Length(Name) - Position(Name;“ “;Length(Name);-1))
returns Smith.