What a Set can do
Sets can be used in two ways:
- You tell the Set Manager which table to draw data from and how to determine which records to include in the Set.
- You can create an "ad-hoc" set and save it
Using the Set Manager
- Click on the Setup button and choose Set Manager from the pop-up menu
- Click on Create a New Record in the Search Dialogue Window
A new Set record looks like this:
As an example, we will create a set containing all contacts in the UK. In our Demo Database, we have a table called Photographers which this data will be drawn from.
- Enter a name for the set, for example "Everybody in the UK"
- Choose a table to base the set on. In our example we'll choose the Photographers table
- Select the criteria for building the set:
- Leave the default (All records in the table) selected to include all the data from the selected table
- Choose Query the Table from the pop-up "Create the set using:" menu to select the criteria for building the set. The display will then change, and the Query Criteria area is displayed:
- Click on Add Criterion
- A Query Line window opens:
- Choose the field that you want to base the query on. The display may change. For example, we'll choose the field Country, which is a Choice List field. When you select a Choice List field, you'll see the list of choices for that field:
- Make a selection from the pop-up choice list menu (we will choose UK)
- Click the Save button
- The Query Criteria area now looks like this:
- Click the Update the Set Now button to check that you have created the set correctly.
- CatBase updates the set and asks if you would like to view the records in the set right away. Click on Yes to open the set of records in a new window.
You can add any number of Query Criteria. when you add more than one, you'll have the option of choosing "And" or "Or" for the additional options. For example, here we want to include anybody from either Australia or New Zealand:
Creating an "ad-hoc" set
You've just done a rather complicated query and found a set of records that you might want to revisit. Or maybe you manually selected some companies that you want to target for a marketing campaign and you need to have a way of instantly finding that same selection again.
No problem!
Choose Save these Records as a Set from the File menu and enter a name for the set. If you subsequently want to change the records in that set, simply re-save them with the same name; you'll be asked if you want to replace the existing set.
