Sorting within and across records

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

John Schomaker - 26 Oct 2004 17:31 GMT

I am working with FileMaker Pro 6. I will simplify my question to the
basics. I have a database with records that contain the following
fields:

ProjectName    DateStep1     DateStep2    DateStep3

I would like to generate a list of sorted dates within and across
projects. So, the list might look like:

ProjectA    DateStep1
ProjectB    DateStep2
ProjectA    DateStep2
ProjectC    DateStep1

What steps or logic should I go through to get my desired result?

I am not a full-time database designer or programmer. I just plug
away to get the results I need, and I will appreciate being pointed in
the right direction. I am stumped.

Thanks for any help,
John Schomaker

Reply to this Message

Dennis Lee Bieber - 27 Oct 2004 03:51 GMT

> I am working with FileMaker Pro 6. I will simplify my question to the

Don't know it, so the following is going to be pretty generic...

> basics. I have a database with records that contain the following
> fields:
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> I would like to generate a list of sorted dates within and across
> projects. So, the list might look like:

You've now shown the above to be not fully normalized...

> ProjectA    DateStep1
> ProjectB    DateStep2
> ProjectA    DateStep2
> ProjectC    DateStep1

You've lost information here -- any single record can not
identify step 1, 2, or 3; all you have is name and a date.

> What steps or logic should I go through to get my desired result?

    Whatever is the equivalent of an "Access make-table query" or,
in some pseudoSQL...

create table X
    ProjectName
    StepID
    StepDate

insert into table X select ProjectName, "1", DateStep1 from Y;
insert into table X select ProjectName, "2", DateStep2 from Y;
insert into table X select ProjectName, "3", DateStep3 from Y;

select ProjectName, StepDate from X order by StepDate;

> ============================================================== <
> wlfraed@ix.netcom.com | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG <
> wulfraed@dm.net | Bestiaria Support Staff <
> ============================================================== <
> Home Page: <http://www.dm.net/~wulfraed/> <
> Overflow Page: <http://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/> <

Reply to this Message