User manual

Table Of Contents
100 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
Multi-criteria relationships
In a multi-criteria relationship, you increase the number of match fields, which increases the criteria that
FileMaker
Pro evaluates before successfully joining related records. In a multi-criteria relationship,
FileMaker
Pro compares the values from each match field on each side of the relationship in the order in
which the fields appear. This is known as an AND comparison; to match successfully, every match field must
find a corresponding value in the other table.
Use a multi-criteria relationship when you want to relate two tables based on more than one common value,
such as a client ID and a date.
In this relationship, both Client ID and Rental Date are match fields to the Rental Line Items table. A record
in the Clients table with a Client ID value of 1000 and a Rental Date value of 10/10/2010 will only match
those records in the Rental Line Items table where both fields Client ID and Rental Date have values of 1000
and 10/10/2010, respectively. If Client ID fields in both tables have matching values, but Rental Date fields
in both tables do not, no related records are returned by the relationship.
For example, a travel equipment rental database has three tables: Equipment, a static table that stores equipment
rental inventory; Clients, which stores client names and addresses; and Rental Line Items, which stores a record
of each equipment rental, including the equipment ID, the client ID, and the rental date. The purpose of this
database is to track equipment rentals and display all rentals by a selected client on a selected date.
Although the database uses three tables, the multi-criteria relationship is between the Clients and Rental
Line Items tables. These tables have the following fields:
Because the relationship is defined to allow the creation of related records in the Rental Line Items table,
users will be able to enter rental information in an empty portal row, and FileMaker
Pro will automatically
create a related record for that rental.
Ta b l e Field name Comment
Clients Client ID Number field, auto-enter serial number. One of the match fields to the Rental
Line Items table
Rental Date Date field. The other match field to the Rental Line Items table
Rental Line Items Client ID Number field. One of the match fields to the Clients table
Rental Date Date field. The other match field to the Clients table
Equipment ID Number field
Match
fields
Match
fields
Select to allow creation of related
records in Rental Line Items table