find from another field

This is stupid because it seems like it ought to be easy, but 
Filemaker's rules are making it hard.

I want to have a user enter a date in a field, call it findThis, then 
run a script to perform a find to find that date in another field. Call 
it theDate.

 In pseudocode, I tried
enter find mode
set field theDate to field findThis
perform find


But when you go into find mode, all the fields go blank.  Set variable 
won't do it because apparently you can't set a field value to a 
variable. Applescript won't do it because you can't pass variables from 
a Filemaker script to an Applescript, and apparently an applescript 

In article <140320081243177564%helpful_harry@nom.de.plume.com>,
 Helpful Harry <helpful_harry@nom.de.plume.com> wrote:

> In article <ws21-627B2A.19303413032008@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu>,
Bill
> Steele <ws21@cornell.edu> wrote:
> 
> > This is stupid because it seems like it ought to be easy, but 
> > Filemaker's rules are making it hard.
> > 
> > I want to have a user enter a date in a field, call it findThis, then

> > run a script to perform a find to find that date in another field.
Call 
> > it theDate.
> > 
> >  In pseudocode, I tried
> > enter find mode
> > set field theDate to field findThis
> > perform find
> > 
> > 
> > But when you go into find mode, all the fields go blank.  Set variable

> > won't do it because apparently you can't set a field value to a 
> > variable. Applescript won't do it because you can't pass variables
from 
> > a Filemaker script to an Applescript, and apparently an applescript 
> > inside a Filemaker script can't issue a do script to Filemaker.
> 
> Change the FindThis field to a Global field rather than a normal one.
> Because they aren't part of any record, Global fields do not "go
blank"
> when entering Find mode. 
> 
> Or in newer versions of FileMaker you can probably also transfer the
> FindThis value to a variable before entering Find mode.
> 
> Helpful Harry                   
> Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships  ;o)

Global field is the way to do that, as Helpful Harry says. That is true 
for newer versions of FileMaker as well.

-- 
Bill Collins

In article <ws21-627B2A.19303413032008@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu>, Bill
Steele <ws21@cornell.edu> wrote:

> This is stupid because it seems like it ought to be easy, but 
> Filemaker's rules are making it hard.
> 
> I want to have a user enter a date in a field, call it findThis, then 
> run a script to perform a find to find that date in another field. Call 
> it theDate.
> 
>  In pseudocode, I tried
> enter find mode
> set field theDate to field findThis
> perform find
> 
> 
> But when you go into find mode, all the fields go blank.  Set variable 
> won't do it because apparently you can't set a field value to a 
> variable. Applescript won't do it because you can't pass variables from 
> a Filemaker script to an Applescript, and apparently an applescript 
> inside a Filemaker script can't issue a do script to Filemaker.

Change the FindThis field to a Global field rather than a normal one.
Because they aren't part of any record, Global fields do not "go
blank"
when entering Find mode. 

Or in newer versions of FileMaker you can probably also transfer the
FindThis value to a variable before entering Find mode.

Helpful Harry