Fair point, Corn, and it re-enforces the idea that it's worth understanding the logic involved in dealing with lists in order to fully appreciate the beauty of functions like GetValue() or List().
John Weinshel Datagrace Vashon Island, WA (206) 463-1634 Member, FileMaker Business Alliance Certified For FileMaker 8 Certified For FileMaker 7 -----Original Message----- From: FileMaker Pro Discussions [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Corn Walker Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:00 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Getting the Count.... On Mar 31, 2008, at 12:46 PM, John Weinshel wrote in part: > > To count the returns, you can use the PatternCount() function: > > PatternCount ( $Variable; "¶") > > ...and to test for the existence of the fence: > > not IsEmpty ( $Variable ) > > ...making your total: > > PatternCount ( $Variable; "¶") + not IsEmpty ( $Variable ) Except if your list of values is the result of culling values with the LeftValues(), MiddleValues(), or RightValues() functions, you will find that there is already a carriage return appended to the list. This will cause the above expression to return one more value than is present in the text. This makes a cumbersome calculation formula even more so: PatternCount( $variable; "¶" ) + Case( not IsEmpty( $variable ) and Right( $variable; 1 ) <> "¶"; 1 ) Compare that to the elegance of ValueCount( $variable ) and perhaps you'll understand why it instantly became one of my favorite functions, coupled with GetValue() in FMP 8. Corn Walker The Proof Group http://proofgroup.com/
