Lookup
Purpose
Returns the value specified in sourceField, using the relationships in the relationships graph.
Format
Lookup(sourceField{;failExpression})
Parameters
sourceField - the
field from which the
lookup value is taken.
failExpression - any
expression.
Parameters in braces { } are optional.
Data type returned
text, number, date, time, timestamp, container
Originated in
FileMaker Pro 7.0
Description
The result of the optional failExpression is returned if the lookup fails.
For this function to access the contents of the source field, the
tables containing the source field and
calculation field need to be
related. Calculations using the
Lookup function won’t be forced to be
unstored calculations.
Note Lookup returns ? when the related table is an ODBC data source.
Examples
There are two tables, People and Company, in a
database file containing the data shown below.
People table
CompanyID | Employee |
100 | John Smith |
200 | Peter Wong |
300 | Sally Anderson |
Company table
CompanyID | CompanyName | Code |
100 | Apple | 91234 |
100 | Apple | 82345 |
200 | FileMaker | 95054 |
The People and Company tables are related using the number field CompanyID. The calculation
CompanyName = Lookup(Company::CompanyName;“Not found”) defined in the People table will return
Apple for the first
record,
FileMaker for the second record, and
Not found for the third record.
Related topics