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Defining Ranges

What Kinds of Ranges?

A range means you are setting end and beginning values between which you want to find all data.

Numbers and Dates

When working with numbers, it's pretty easy to see why you would want to use ranges. For instance, you might want:

• Records for individuals within a certain age range (e.g. 18-35)
• Records for events with a certain year (e.g. 1950-1970 or 1/1/1950-12/31/1970)
• Records for families with a certain income range (e.g. $75,000-$10,000)

Working with ranges is often very important for statistical or financial analysis.

Text

You can also define ranges for text in terms for alphabetical sorts. For instance, if want students whose last names start from A-J to take an exam in the morning and everyone else to take the exam in the afternoon, the range "A-J" would list students taking the morning exam.

Another use for text ranges would be in certain types of codes. For instance, Library of Congress Call numbers are organized so that that the first characters correspond to a subject area. Searching for a range of call numbers might call up related records in that discipline. For instance PL901-PL949 are reserved for different aspects of the Korean language.

Entering Ranges

Filemaker Pro

Enter Find mode and do the following.

1. You can use use the character "..." to define ranges (e.g. 18...35).
2. Use the >,≥, <,≤ characters to greater than or define lesser than ranges (e.g. >35). These can be inserted with the Symbol menu after you enter Find mode.
3. To find outliers (e.g. less than 18 and greater than 35), enter the range, then click the Omit check box to perform a NOT search.

Access

The following works in either Filter from a form mode or query mode.

1. Use the between x and y syntax to define ranges, where x and y are values of the range (e.g. between 18 and 35).
2. Use the >,< characters to greater than or define lesser than ranges (e.g. >35). These can be inserted with the Symbol menu after you enter Find mode.
3. To find outliers (e.g. less than 18 and greater than 35), define the range, then use the NOT operator (e.g. NOT (between 18 and 35)).

Next: Sorting Data in Tables
Prev: Null Searches

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Last Update: August 1, 2005