Some FileMaker Pro owners may be familiar with database programs that require you to enter search requests using "and/or" logic. If you are trying to understand how to apply these techniques to FileMaker Pro, here are some guidelines to keep in mind:
The Add New Request command lets you have more than one find request at a time. Add New Request shows up when you are in Find Mode and can be found under the Requests Menu. Multiple Find requests behave as "or" criteria. For example, suppose you have a database that contains a State field and you want to find all the records that contain "California" or "Hawaii."
- Enter Find Mode
- Type "California" into the State field
- Select New Request from the appropriate menu
- Type "Hawaii" into the State field
- Perform the Find
To make an "and" request, you must list multiple criteria in the same request. For example, suppose you wish to find all records that contain "California" in the State field and "Smith" in the LastName field.
- Enter Find Mode
- Type "California" into the State field
- Type "Smith" into the LastName field
- Perform the Find
You can combine the "and" and "or" requests as well. For example, suppose you wish to find all the people in California with the last names of "Smith", "Jones" or "Brown".
- Enter Find Mode
- Type "California" into the State field.
- Type "Smith" into the LastName field
- Select Duplicate Request from the appropriate menu
- Change "Smith" to "Jones"
- Repeat step 4 and change "Jones" to "Brown"
- Perform the Find
Omit requests are neither "and" nor "or" equivalents. They act on the set of records that would be in the found set based on the Find criteria preceding the Omit request. As such, Omit requests should always be the last of all requests. For example, suppose you wish to find all the people in "California" with the last name of "Smith" but not "Jane" "Smith".
- Enter Find Mode.
- Type "California" into the State field.
- Type "Smith" into the LastName field
- Select Duplicate Request from the appropriate menu
- Check the Omit box on your status bar
- Type "Jane" into the FirstName field
- Perform the Find
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