Beverly Voth has produced a PDF version of The Missing SQL Reference with some additional material not available in her original posting from October 19th.
And the SQL4_fmdev2.fmp12 demo file has been updated with new queries.
Thank you Beverly for this major contribution to the FileMaker community.
There seem to be many questions about the usage of SQL (Structured Query Language) with the ExecuteSQL function in FileMaker 12. This tutorial attempts to explain some of the SQL terms, if you are new to writing SQL statements. Since there are already many examples of how to write the ExecuteSQL queries, links to these will be listed at the end of this article. If you don’t need to learn the terms, jump right to the Helpful Example Databases section, below. There you will find links to solutions that help you create and test your queries.
This is not a complete SQL guide, as other databases may use other syntax. This is not a complete FileMaker and SQL guide, as FileMaker may be an ODBC source and the SQL queries made against it may vary from the terms used by ExecuteSQL(). This is not a complete FileMaker and ESS guide using SQL calls (if using Import or Execute SQL script steps or ExecuteSQL() function or ESS). It may not have all the nuances needed for other data sources. This is the ExecuteSQL() function reference for which you’ve been waiting. The FileMaker 12 ODBC and JDBC Guide is helpful, but it has uses outside (and beyond) the ExecuteSQL() function. Any discrepancies between the reference and the function will be noted here, if possible.
Last week in part 1 we looked at four “outer join” reporting approaches. Two of them involved ExecuteSQL, and I ended that section with the plea: Of course it’s possible that you, dear reader, know some FileMaker SQL voodoo to speed things up, and would be willing to share? Well Dr. Osamu Noda of Japan was kind enough to not only respond, but has provided a pair of demos (Outer Join Demo 5 and Outer Join Demo 6) which are significantly faster and which I am sharing with his permission.
Both of the demos are based on my original files from last week, and as you may recall, the aim was to show a week’s worth of sales for all employees whether they had any sales or not.
Recently I had an on-screen reporting challenge, and decided to try several different approaches to see which would be fastest. The challenge: Starting with two tables, one containing 20 Employees, and one containing 2,000 Sales records for the current year…
…display daily sales totals per employee in a seven-day grid, like so:
Have you ever wanted to export a single field and maintain all the characters in that field? This article explores the possibility with XML Export and the use of a simple XSLT. But first we’ll explain the good, the bad and the ugly of some different standard ways to export TEXT out of FileMaker.
Using this sample text in one field (and one record) we will make different exports and review the results:
Continue reading “An In-Depth Look at “Export Field Contents””
The question on one or more of the FileMaker forums was asked and answered. Q: How do you get the Count() of the related records in a filtered portal? A: (paraphrased) duplicate the filtered portal and make it one row in height. Place the related summary field, “Count of…”, in the single row filtered portal. Voila! your count is now filter-specific. (The instructions for creating the filter for a portal and summary field are below.)
This recent topic led me to consider what other aggregate fields could be used with the filtered portal. And what about that Go To Related Record script step? Does it only show the related FILTERED records or all related records? The demo (bvoth_aggregates_in_portals.fmp12) and article have been created to answer these questions.
I started using filtered portals in cross-tab reports shortly after they were introduced. These are generally ways to show something very specific in each portal with sorts and filters and usually one row only. I had not explored the use of aggregates in these cross-tab reports until now.
Kudos to those before me that may have discovered these answers and tricks, too.
Continue reading “Aggregates (Summary Fields) in Filtered Portals”
In July and August we explored several esoteric value list techniques. This time around, and over the next few postings, we’re going to step back from the cutting edge, identify some common value list challenges, and propose some solutions to those challenges. A few thoughts before we begin:
Now on to our first demo (Thinking About Value Lists, part 1 demo 1), which contains a table of employees with office sizes. Here it is in layout mode…
Recently a question came up on one of the lists asking about intermediate-to-advanced FileMaker blogs. Here are some I like to read (no doubt I’ve missed some good ones; I apologize for any inadvertent omissions).
Cimbura – http://cimbura.com/tech/blog
DB Services – http://www.dbservices.com/articles
FileMaker ’n’ the Web: Lessons Learned – http://blog.jsfmp.com
FileMaker Weetbicks – http://www.teamdf.com/weetbicks
FMDiff – http://fmdiff.com/fm
FM Forums Community Blog List – http://fmforums.com/forum/blogs
GeistInteractive – http://www.geistinteractive.com/blog
HomeBase Software – http://hbase.net
MightyData – http://www.mightydata.com/blog
New York FileMaker Pro Developers’ Group – http://nyfmp.org/blog
RobFM – http://www.sumware.net/robfm3
SavvyData – http://www.savvydata.com/blog
SeedCode – http://seedcodenext.wordpress.com
Six Fried Rice – http://sixfriedrice.com/wp/blog
Soliant Consulting – http://www.soliantconsulting.com/blog
Editor’s note: Today it’s my pleasure to present a guest article written by Beverly Voth. Like many other developers, I have enjoyed and benefitted from her ongoing contributions to the FileMaker community.
I do a lot of text manipulation for EDI (Electronic data interchange – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_data_interchange) and plain text exports with fixed-width field data. Some varieties of EDI use XML, but this article is about plain text. EDI may or may not use the fixed-width format. Fixed-width reports may or may not use delimiters and various “padding” characters.
I created two FileMaker custom functions to help me calculate fixed-width and EDI text for export, and if you wish, you can follow along in today’s demo file, Fixed Width EDI.
Update 20 Aug 2012: Dr. Noda has updated the demo files to include Rob Russell’s clever fill graphic trick (as per the responses following the article). Thank you Rob and Dr. Noda.
As promised last time, today we’re going to look at a technique from Dr. Osamu Noda, which uses FM 12’s ExecuteSQL to create what appears to be a value list when in fact there are no value lists defined at all.
This technique, like some of the others we’ve seen recently, is decidedly esoteric, but it shows some clever outside-the-box thinking, and I appreciate Dr. Noda taking the time to share the demo (ValueListWithoutDefinition-RR-Edition) and write up his notes. One of the things I particularly like about this technique is that it allows the order of the value list items to be customized, even though the values come from a table.
