Re: Need help from a Filemaker Ninja...
Re: Need help from a Filemaker Ninja...
- Subject: Re: Need help from a Filemaker Ninja...
- From: "Gary (Lists)" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 19:12:43 -0400
>> "Bernardo Hoehl" wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I am trying to set the content of a repeatition of a cell.
>>>
>>> But I can't controll which repetition I am addressing... It
>>> allways inserts
>>> the value in the first repetition of the cell!
>>>
>>> I am using Filemaker 6...
>>>
>>
>> Bernardo,
>>
>> Repeating fields in FM6 will return an AppleScript list when you
>> 'get' the
>> contents.
>>
>> Conversely, when you 'set' the value, you must provide a list (of
>> the same
>> size).
"Eric Geoffroy" wrote:
> This is a lesson I learned the hard way. I spent 2 hours this morning
> getting rid of some of our repeating fields. The FM people said that
> repeating fields is a carry-over from when the related database model
> was weak or non-existent in FMP. Around here, people were using them
> as a catch-all. Sometimes a date, sometimes a comment, sometimes an
> item like address would be repetition 2 sometimes 3. Lots of messy
> abuse inherited from an old database.
Well, in a contained environment, or where data is being scrubbed at entry,
it's pretty easy to maintain consistency.
You are right, however. In database theory, repeating fields are only to be
used for creating compound relation keys.
Specifically, repeating fields that are _not_ compound keys violate
the Rule 1NF, or 'First Normal Form'.
It is _good_ that FileMaker has repeating fields, because we want to be able
to make compound keys. Repeating fields are not really a hold-over from some
less-relational time, rather they are useful 'arrays' even in a
non-relational setting. (The facility to quickly get all repetitions into
an AppleScript list is very handy, for example.)
The uses you cite -- the "oh, lots of space to dump stuff" usage -- can be
very problematic and I absolutely agree with you that in multi-user, highly
relational data settings the repeating field invites unneeded complexity and
increases instances of malformed data, in addition to being a violation of
Normal Form rules.
--
Gary
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