Hi helpful FileMaker experts:


I have two related questions:

How do I search for carriage returns in a field?

How do I prevent my staff from entering a carriage return in a field?



My problem stems from the fact that if a carriage return is added to a
name field it messes up later uses of that data (such as an address, etc.).


Please cc answers to my main email:

harvey.kliman (AT) yale (DOT) edu


Thanks as always for your help.

Harvey Kliman
Yale University School of Medicine

I would answer two ways :
1) to search for any 'odd' characters you may have it copied from Word
into a global or better into a common field in a one record file.
2) when using user entered data you may delete any miss used characters
before using it. Ie :
UserFieldBis = Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(UserField, "¶", ""); "
", " "); " ", " ")
Or else, have a message transparent on the top of the field : Message =
Case((PatternCount(UserField ; "¶" ) > 0; "Please withdraw any 'odd'
character from this entry", "").
Remi-Noel


"Harvey Kliman" <harveykliman (AT) mac (DOT) com> a écrit dans le message de news:
4273B1B9.8070106 (AT) mac (DOT) com...

Add validation to the field definition to prevent entry of returns, as:
case(patterncount(NameField, "¶"), 0, 1)

This will fail the validation if it has a return character in it.

You can also copy a return from another field and paste it into your
find criteria within quotes.


Harvey Kliman wrote:
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howard Schlossberg (818) 883-2846
FM Pro Solutions Los Angeles, California

FileMaker 7 Certified Developer
Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance

Harvey Kliman wrote:

I don't think you can search for carriage returns. "¶" doesn't work for
instance. One workaround would be to create a calculation field =
PatternCount(field, "¶")and then search for records where this calc is > 0.

If you just want to clean up data already entered, however, there is no
need to find the set contaning returns. You can use the replace function
across the entire recordset, replacing the content of a field with a
calculation = substitute (field, "¶", " "): taht would replace every
return with a space instead. Obviously you have to do that for every
field that may contain unneeded returns.

You can prevent people from using carriage retuns in these fields with a
validation (under options for that field definition) by calculation,
such as PatternCount(field, "¶") = 0, and maybe display a custom mesage
if validation fails.

Just to make sure, I usually also clean up the data within calculations
that use these fields.

For instance, instead of:
first_name & " " & last_name & "¶" &
adress & ", " & city & "¶" &
etc.

I would use:
trim(substitute(substitute(first_name,"¶", " ")," ", "") & " " &
trim(substitute(substitute(last_name,"¶", " ")," ", "") & "¶" &
trim(substitute(substitute(adress,"¶", " ")," ", "") & ", " &
trim(substitute(substitute(city,"¶", " ")," ", "") & "¶" &
etc.

This removes leading and trailing spaces (trim), carriage returns (inner
substitution) and double spaces (outer substitution), either already
there or introduced by replacing returns with single spaces

You didn't sepcify which version you use, but with Filemaker 7, there
are other possibilities as well.

HTH

Marc-André Paiement

Thank you, and thanks to you other helpful FM experts for assisting me.

Best wishes,

Harvey Kliman



Remi-Noel Menegaux wrote:
--


Harvey J. Kliman, M.D., Ph.D.
Yale University School of Medicine
Reproductive and Placental Research Unit
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
333 Cedar Street, 312 FMB
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8063
203 785-3854, 203 785-7642 (lab)
203 785-4477 (Fax); 203 387-6422 (Home Fax)
Text pager: 800 347-2574, PIN: 83369

http://info.med.yale.edu/obgyn/kliman
mailto:harvey.kliman (AT) yale (DOT) edu


"Behind every healthy baby is a healthy placenta"