I understand that, thank you but in my situation I have to work with "real" data, I must use key fields from a data base not of my creation.
Am simply asking is it better to make iterations of tables so that I do not burden one set of tables with all the relationships in case one criterion (match field ) does not match. On Jun 4, 2012, at 1:03 AM, Richard S. Russell wrote: On 2012 Jun 4, at 0:52, Barbara Passman wrote: > When establishing relatioh-ships between two tables, and more than one key > field is used, is it better to enter all the key relationships in the two > tables, or , using duplicate tables, use each dyad to link by single key > field? > > Example > Linking between two tables , using Surname, First Name and Home Telephone > Am I wiser to have Table A1related to Table B1 via Surname and First Name > And then show the relationship between Home Telephones in Table A2 and B2? > > What happens if I link Surname, First Name and Home Telephone (all three key > fields ) between one iteration of each table Table A and Table B and two of > the three key fields match but a third does not ? > Will the portal in Table A still show the related data from Table B even > though the Home Telephone numbers do not match between Table A and Table B? > > I guess what I am asking is whether Filemaker understands the selection of > several Key field relationships as implying > First Name AND Last Name AND Telephone to see the relationship? > Or will Filemaker see the relationship if ANY of the Key fields match ? > > I have never seen any explanation of this. Barbara, you are using what are called "intelligent keys", and you'd think from the name that that's a smart thing to do. In fact, you're usually better off using "dumb keys" — that is, an arbitrary (but unique) sequence number to identify each record. Suppose you're matching Susan Johnson, phone 234-5678 and she gets a new phone. Or gets married and gets a new surname. Changing you data will break any links BASED on that data. But if Susan has a unique code number that has no intrinsic meaning, there will never be any reason to change it, and any relationships BASED on that unique ID code will remain intact no matter what you do to her name or phone number.
