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Time-Saving Tip: Easy Shortcuts for Searching Date Ranges
FileMaker Pro
comes with a few quick and easy shortcuts for searching date
ranges that are often overlooked, yet simple to learn and
implement. Here are a handful of those shortcuts that will
help you search date ranges faster and easier than ever
before.
Searching a
date field for records that fall within a particular year is
as simple as entering the four-digit year in field when in
Find mode. For example, if you wanted to find all of the
invoices created during 2006, you enter 2006 in the invoice
date field in Find mode. FileMaker will automatically assume
you entered */*/2006 and find all records with 2006 in the
year portion of the date.
FileMaker makes
similar assumptions when searching for dates in a particular
month. When you enter a single value between 1 and 12 in a
date field in Find mode, FileMaker will find all records
that fall within the month that corresponds with the value.
In this case FileMaker assumes you are looking for the
current year. So, if you perform the find with 10 in the
date field and the current year is 2009, FileMaker will
assume you entered 10/*/2009 returning all records with a
date value during the month of October in the year 2009. To
find records for a particular month during a different,
simply enter the month and the year. For example 7/2006 will
return all records that match July, 2006 regardless of the
current year.
These date
shortcuts can also be combined with the range symbol (…)
that has existed in FileMaker for years. If you would like
to return all of the records that match a date value for the
years 2007, 2008 and 2009 simply enter 2007…2009 in the date
field in Find mode and records with a date value from
1/1/2007 up to and including 12/31/2009 will be returned.
Brackets can be
used to further extend your range search. Use brackets and
the range symbol to constrain or extend individual parts of
the date values. For example, to search for a particular
quarter for the current year, you can enter the first and
last month of that quarter with the range symbol, such as
1…3 and FileMaker will return records with a date value that
matches January 1 to March 31 of the current year. But if
you wanted to search for a different year, you can use
brackets to enter a range for the month value. For example,
to search the first quarter of 2006 simply enter {1…3}/2006.
FileMaker will assume you entered 1/*/2006…3/*/2006 and
return all records between and including January 1, 2006 and
March 31, 2006.
Finally,
FileMaker allows you to quickly search all records with a
date value that falls on a particular day. All you have to
do is enter the first three characters of the day name in
the date field while in Find mode. For example, to find all
records with a date value that falls on a Monday, simply
enter mon in the date field in Find mode. This shortcut can
also be extended using the range symbol. Entering sat…sun in
the date field when performing the find will return any
records with a date value that falls on a weekend.
These date
range shortcuts are available in FileMaker Pro 8 or greater.
Learning these simple shortcuts will save you time and many
keystrokes. Your date range searching will become much
quicker and easier than ever. |
