I want to be able to make certain decisions on the basis of the ASCII
numbers of text characters.

If I were working in C this would be simple, but how can I do that in
FileMaker?

To simplify: I'd like to enter an "a" and have a calculation field
convert that to "097", or enter "A" to get "231" etc etc ...

I don't seem to be able to persuade FileMaker to recognise the
difference between "a" and "A". If I convert to ASCII codes, I'll have
much more control.

N.B. Just in case I'm standing on my head for no good reason here, an
example of what I'm trying to to is have FileMaker convert a number of
forenames into initials.

e.g. I'd like to be able to enter "Richard. M." and have a calculation
field make that into "R.M." * using ASCII code seems a good way of
getting FileMaker to keep the Uppercase and ignore the Lowercase.

Thanks to anyone who considers this, and apologies if I've missed
something obvious. I use to be quite skilled at FileMaker a decade ago,
but in recent versions it's become almost a new application.

Emma

"Emma Grey" <gone (AT) way (DOT) far> schreef in bericht
news:280520070138350252%gone (AT) way (DOT) far...
With fmp8 adv you can create custom functions (you didn't state version).
Something like (which i found on Brian Dunnings website, which has a lot of
custom functions)

ASCII <char>
Let(
ASCII = " !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;ó?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~?ÇüéâäàåçêëèïîìÄÅ ÉæÆôöòûùÿÖÜ¢£¥?fáíóúñѪº"

;

Case( Position ( ASCII ; char ; 1 ; 1 );
// if char exists in ASCII table
Case( PatternCount ( ASCII ; char ) = 2;
// if char appears twice in ASCII table (upper & lower case)
Case( Exact( Middle(ASCII; Position ( ASCII ; char ; 1 ; 1 );
1); char); // if char matches first occurrence
Position ( ASCII ; char ; 1 ; 1 ) + 31;
// convert first occurrence to ASCII code
Position ( ASCII ; char ; 1 ; 2 ) + 31
// convert second occurrence to ASCII code
);
Position ( ASCII ; char ; 1 ; 1 ) + 31
// convert to ASCII code (if char appears once in ASCII table)
);
"")
)

Or simply use the upper/lower functions
If ( exact ( text ) ; upper (text) ) you have an uppercase character.

or look for the amazing UniversalCapitalizer by David Kachel on
http://www.foundationdbs.com/downloads.html

Keep well Ursus

Emma Grey <gone (AT) way (DOT) far> wrote:
This recursive function might help you on your way ...

NameToInitials ( text )

Let ( wc = WordCount ( text ) ; Case ( wc ; Left ( LeftWords ( text ; 1 ) ; 1 )
& "." & NameToInitials ( RightWords ( text ; wc - 1 ) ) ) )

good luck!

Thanks to Ursus and Sargasso for your suggestions. I'll be trying them
out ASAP.

Emma

In article <4659fc62$0$99475$dbd4f001 (AT) news (DOT) wanadoo.nl>, Ursus
<ursus.kirk (AT) wanadoo (DOT) nl> wrote:

Thanks Ursus, I'm using 8.0v1.

Emma