Context is the table in the relationships graph from which a relationship is evaluated. When you define a calculation in a source table, and the table has more than one occurrence in the relationships graph, you must specify the context from which you want the calculation to evaluate.

Each context choice represents a different table in the relationships graph, and a different perspective into your data; when you choose the context for a calculation, you tell FileMaker Pro to evaluate the calculation starting from that table occurrence. Because each context choice represents a different association of related tables and fields, choosing the evaluation context for your calculation is critical to getting the results you expect.

You have a database with two source tables named ColorsSourceTable and ShapesSourceTable. The tables have these properties:

The tables are related as follows:

There are two separate relationships:

Because ColorsTable 1 and ColorsTable 2 share the same source table, a calculation defined in ColorsSourceTable can be evaluated from the context of either the ColorsTable 1 table occurrence or the ColorsTable 2 table occurrence.

To see how this works, consider the effects of context on two calculation fields in the table ColorsSourceTable. Each calculation field uses the same formula to determine the sum of prices in the table ShapesSourceTable; the only change is the evaluation context. ShapesSourceTable has three records with these values:

A single record in the ColorsSourceTable has these values:

Because the relationships use different match fields, each relationship returns a different set of related records.

The relationship between ColorsTable 1 and ShapesTable, which uses Style Number as the match field, returns these two records:

A calculation field defined in the ColorsSourceTable with the formula Sum(ShapesTable::Price) that is set to evaluate from the context of the table ColorsTable 1 returns the value $8.00.

The relationship between ColorsTable 2 and ShapesTable, which uses Weight as the match field, returns these two records:

A second calculation field defined in the ColorsSourceTable with the same formula, Sum(ShapesTable::Price), but set to evaluate from the context of the table ColorsTable 2 returns the value $15.00.