Complex Filemaker pro

I think you might do better by going to the FileMaker Pro help site as your questions are specific to that product.

I've read this a few times now and am still having trouble understanding what you want to do here.

You say:

> I have hundred of fmp12 db using FILEMAKERPRO 18

Which I understand to mean that you have many databases created in FileMaker Pro. No problem there.

> The db are about my students films and they come in 3 different versions

I think you mean that the databases store various pieces of information about your students' films.

But now it breaks down:

> Occasionally I received them in different ways although the content is the same

you receive what? other databases? text files that you want to import? Or are you trying to export the data in a consistent manner?

and:

> always creating a file where the year comes after the name, and if there is no year another tab creating an empty field, and (if necessary) moving the extension at the end?

what file are you trying to create? a new FileMaker Pro database? an export file of the data?

And then you say:

> I have over 3000 tab files

which implies that the files are tab-delimited files, not FileMaker Pro databases at all.

Assuming that you're talking about these tab-delimited files, are you trying to rewrite the files into a consistent format? rename the files to be more consistent? or import that data into FileMaker Pro? All of these scenarios could be inferred from your post but it isn't clear which one you're aiming for.

Please post more details, including an example of the file data if that helps clarify your request.

THanks Camelot for your time and care

I will try now to explain better

1st

My students send me plain text files devided in 3 parts each with a tab sign, there are no carriage returns in any text file.

The files they sent me only share the first tab properly the tab being the name of the film they discuss.

After receiving the files I add them to a BBedit text file which keeps the various tabs and can easily be imported in my FMP db which only has 3 fields: FileName -> Year -> Reference -> Carriage return

They also should send the year and then a reference in this order, however some do not.

In other words while the filename is always there and the first for all tab-text files I receive, some write the reference then tab and then the year.

Others simply send the filename

Others simply send the year so the file only has two tab files and importing it in FMP18 it will go in the 2nd field of the database.

Others only send the filename and the reference.

Importing the BBedit text file becomes very complex, as some fields in the records do not match the order required.

As the year is always a number with 4 digits this perhaps will help me to adjust the database so that each field has the same contente: text, for filename, number for the year, text for the reference.

I hope to be able to still import everything from the BB edit text file, with a script which

1st

moves the to the proper field if the student swapped the reference and the year in the wrong place

2nd

Places the year in the year field and moves to the next if the reference is missing

3rd

Places the refernce in the third field leaving the year empty if the year info is missing.

4th simply moves to the next record if they only wrote the filename.

This shouldn't be too hard as the year is always 4 digits from 1918 to 2021.

The reference is a text file with max 10 characters and none contains any digits

I hope this simplifies the chance to write a script if this is at all possible.

Thanks again for your time and care, but I am too old to do it manually and I am no longer famiiar with the improvements in FMP18

KInd regards