Oddly behaving multiple conditional value lists

[futility]

I have some conditional value lists set up that aren't behaving like they're supposed to. The first and 2nd level of choices work well, but the 3rd level is only giving me some of the possible options. I can't even figure out why it's allowing these particular options to be chosen. If I delete all the related records and try starting from scratch, I get the same results.

 

What I don't get is that everything is tied together by matching text pulled from drop down lists. So how is it even possible that some but not all of the choices are being filtered out.

[AHunter3]

Things that can Just Go Wrong even when your structure is dead-on perfect:

 

• The index of the field driving the final value list can be corrupt.

 

• There was, at one time, a bug in value list where FileMaker would take a dislike to the value in a certain record's field and all values in records past that point would just not show up in the value list. Sorry, I know that horribly vague. It was probably fixed at least two full versions ago and probably is NOT what you are experiencing.

 

• Your DATA is nonstandard in the field that drives the third value list. Example A: field is defined as a number field but is being treated as a text field, and many records have non-numerical characters in this field. Example B: There are hard returns in the field that drives the third value list. That chops the intended value into two separate values each of which would appear independently in the value list. Example C: Your data itself is corrupt, containing control characters in the data that are playing havoc with the index.

 

 

More likely, though, the problem is structural. There are a nearly infinite number of ways to NOT do a conditional value list correctly. This is far from a complete list but

 

• In a VL that "also shows values from" some other field and indexes by the second field, the second field may be chosen from a different table occurrence than the main field.

 

• The table occurrence listed for "Show only related values from ____" is not the right table occurrence.

 

• One or more of the fields (the main field or the "Also Show" field, if it has one) is a calculation field, and although it is being referenced from the right table occurrence when you set up the value list, in the actual calculation field definition it is being evaluated from the perspective of a different table occurrence in a way that makes it work wrong.

 

• On your layout, the SECOND field, whose value is supposed to drive what does or does not show up in the 3rd value list, is itself chosen from the wrong table occurrence and therefore the value selected is not going into the record you think that it is.

 

• One or more of the fields (the main field or the "Also Show" field, if it has one) is a calculation field, and stores values that don't work as expected when stored (such as Get(CurrentDate), for example) and therefore generate value list items that are not what you expect either.

 

 

Hard to do more than guess in the dark without seeing your solution. If you join up as a full member you can post a copy here and we can download it and look at it and let you know.