Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society Home Page

Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society

David R. Crowe, President Phone: +1-403-289-6609 Fax: +1-403-206-7717 Email: David.Crowe@aras.ab.ca Roger Swan, Treasurer	This site copyright © October, 2017 Box 61037, Kensington Postal Outlet Calgary, Alberta T2N 4S6 Canada	Office Phone: +1-403-220-0129 Email: aras@aras.ab.ca Web: noaids.ca

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Database Help

David Crowe, Version 13.04, October, 2017.

Quick search for news item records

The quick search field allows you to do many searches by simply entering your search term in the quick search field and pressing RETURN or ENTER. Some hints for more effective searches are:

If you enter a number, only numeric fields will be searched unless you enclose it in double quotes. You can precede a number with an inequality or equality symbol (<, <=, >, >=, =).
If you enter a date of the format mm/dd/yyyy (numeric month), only date fields will be searched unless you enclose it in double quotes. You can also precede a date with an inequality or equality symbol.
You can indicate a range of dates or numbers by putting '..' between two values.
You can look for records that do not match your search term by preceding it with !=.
The way to initiate a quick search is by pressing RETURN or ENTER when your cursor is in the quick search box.
Many of the advanced FileMaker search symbols are available for use, such as //, * and @.
If you cannot get what you want with Quick Search, use the more sophisticated and flexible Advanced Search.

Advanced search for news item records

This web page uses FileMaker search conventions (because it is searching a FileMaker database). These allow for the simple creation of very powerful queries. Note that the search is additive, news item records are returned that match all the criteria that you specify (or if you specify != queries, that match none of the criteria).

Entering a single "word" (which means a contiguous series of characters without spaces or punctuation) matches all news item records containing that word or one starting with it in the specified field. Entering Smith will find news item records containing Smith and Smithers but not Psmith.
Entering multiple words will match all news item records containing all words, in any order. Entering John Peter will find news item records containing John Petersen, Peter Johnston and Peter John Smith but not John Smith or Peter Smithers.
Entering == (double equal sign) into a field matches news item records where this field is empty. Entering * (asterisk) matches news item records where this field is not empty.
Entering = followed by a word matches the word exactly. =John matches a news item record with John but not one with Johnston (unless it also contains John).
Entering == followed by a phrase matches news item records where the field contains that exact phrase so ==John Smith matches only when the field contains John Smith and nothing else.
Putting a phrase in double quote marks matches it exactly even if it contains spaces or punctuation. "10 Downing" matches 10 Downing Street but not Downing 10 pints.
Using the "at" sign (@) matches a single character. Crow@ matches Crowe but not Crow . Similarly, a # matches a single digit. 1## matches any number in the hundreds.
* matches zero or more characters so Pe*n matches Pen or Petersen. You can use this in a date, so 2/*/2020 is any date in February of 2020.
Inequality operators match fields containing data that is less than (<) something specified, less than or equal to (<e;), greater than (>) or greater than or equal to (>e;). This is most useful with number or date fields but can also be used with text fields. <10 matches news item records containing a number less than 10. >=1/1/2015 matches all dates in 2015 or later.
The two character prefix "!=" matches news item records that do not have this value in this field. For example, !=Alpha would match all news item records that do not contain Alpha in this field.
Two periods (..) finds a range of numbers (e.g. 10..20), dates (e.g. 1/1/2010..5/31/2010) or text (e.g. A..B finds all fields containing words starting with A as well as the letter B, but not words starting with B).
Two slashes (//) matches the current date. 1/1/2013..// matches all fields with dates between the beginning of 2013 and today.
For most fields, you can search for multiple values by separating them with a comma so, John, Peter matches all news item records containing either John or Peter.
You can issue queries from parameters attached to the URL. Type the URL and add ?Help to the end to get instructions for this. If you include SearchControl=Static then the search will occur without the query interface being displayed. To issue a query and export the results immediately include SearchControl=Export.
Note that the characters = and & cannot be used in URLs except to identify URL parameters. The sequence %3D must be used instead of = and %26 must be used instead of &. So, for example, &Count=<=3 (search for field count less than or equal to 3) must be specified as &Count=<%3D3 (note that the first & and &eq; are interpreted as part of the URL so must not be substituted). It will be less confusing to use < and > instead of <= or >=, when possible.
Special characters are special so you may have trouble if you try to search for a comma, at-sign (@) or other characters described above with specific meanings. You can usually avoid this. If you want to search for #123, 456 Main Street, NW, searching for "123 456 Main" will get the right record and probably nothing else.