auto fill and keep record entrys

[caman74]

Hello.

After having created a huge database in MS Access 2003, I feel like trying to make one in Filemaker 7.

But I have some problems... Please help me...

I have a table called "Transport".
Within this table I have some fields called "shprZip"(number), "shprCity"(text), "rcvrZip"(number), "rcvrCity"(text), "custZip"(number) and "custCity"(text).

I also have a table called "Post".
In this table I have the fields "zip"(number) and "city"(text).

The "Post" table has several thousend zip and city records.

I would be able to enter the zip in "shprZip" and autofill "shprCity" with one value and in the same record use another zip and value on "custZip" and "custCity" and so on.

How do I do that.

I guess it gets the city value from the table "Post", so I also have one question about that.

If I in record 1 has filled out "custZip" i.e "1515" it will autofill the "custCity" with "moss". This is because the value "1515" equals "moss" in the "Post" table.

If I now by any means need to change the value "1515"="moss" in "Post" to i.e "1515"="sarp", will this affect record 1 and all other records that have this reference?
If so, how do I prevent earlier registrated records from changing this value?

Best regards

Chris

 

[TStriker]

Chris,

A couple things:

First off, this is not really related to your question but you may want to consider making your zip code fields TEXT rather than NUMBER. I only use number fields when mathmatical operations will be performed on the contents. You know like add, subtract, multiply, divide etc. I would guess that you will not be doing math on the Zip Code. The TEXT field will also accomidate zip codes with leading zeros better. The same goes for the dash (-) that normally falls between the first five digits and the last four. A text field will handle all of this better.

Now to answer your question; You will want to investigate "looked-up values". This will autopopulate your fields with the values contained in your static POST table. The term "lookup" means that it is looked up only on original entry. It will not change if the city name in the POST table changes later on for instance.

You will find the Lookup settings on the Define Fields dialog box under the auto enter tab.

Since you stated that you built an extensive DB in MS Access I will not address the large topic of table relationships here. Good luck!

-Striker

 

[caman74]

Thanks!

What? Don't you divide the zip codes with eachother where you come from?Here in Norway we do that to get the distance between to destinations...

Not!

Thank you for pointing that out for me, because every little thing made wrong will affect this database, and I'm all new to Filemaker. My zip fields are no "formatted" ad TEXT.

I now think I understand how to do this lookup, so again. Thanks

Chris

 

[TStriker]

Chris,

Like a typical American I assumed you were in the USA. Sorry about that! I don't have the foggiest idea how zip codes are formatted on Norway.

Good luck!

-Striker