Calculate field contents

[matt1977a]

I am trying to create a table of letters rather than creating 100s of layouts for different letters. I want to be able to type the body of the email into a 'body field' using standard filemaker calculations:

 

"Dear " & Person::nameFirst & ", " and so forth. What i tried to do was made a second field 'bodyCalc' which was a calculation Evaluate (body) which results in a ?

 

Any ideas on how field contents can contain calculations then be calculated?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

[AHunter3]

Evaluate (MyTable::FieldName) will return "?" unless the contents of MyTable::FieldName happens to consist of a valid calculation formula, which could be a fieldname or an expression, function, numerical formula, etc etc.

 

Obviously that's what you are trying to do, but it's finding fault with your formula.

 

Watch out for quotation marks. You might want to create a calc field Qmk or a global text field g.Qmk and either enter a formula or type a literal quotation mark, one or the other, and then reference that in your field wherever you would wish a quotation mark.

 

Try copying the entire contents of your field, opening up Define Database / Field Definitions, and create a calc field & paste clipboard contents and see if it will let you OK your way out of that field def dialog. If not, it will guide you to where there's an invalid part of your formula.

[matt1977a]

Exactly, I thought that was the way to do it. I had an unrelated field in there keeping it from evaluating.

 

Thanks!