PatternCount(): searching and counting occurrences in FileMaker

Beginner

PatternCount() counts how many times a substring appears in a text value. Learn how to use it for existence checks, occurrence counting, and basic text analysis.

What you'll learn

How PatternCount counts occurrences of a substring
How to use PatternCount as a boolean existence check
Practical uses: validating email format, counting delimiters, checking for keywords

PatternCount ( text ; searchString ) returns the number of times searchString appears in text — returning 0 if not found and a positive integer for each occurrence found, making it ideal for both existence checks and counting.

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Check whether a value contains a substring

PatternCount returns 0 if the substring is not found, so using it in an If condition acts as a boolean "contains" check. It is case-insensitive.

FileMaker Script

# Check if an email address contains @
If [ not PatternCount ( Contacts::email ; "@" ) ]
  Show Custom Dialog [ "Please enter a valid email address." ]
  Exit Script [ Result: False ]
End If

# Check if a text field contains a keyword
If [ PatternCount ( Notes::body ; "urgent" ) ]
  Set Field [ Notes::flagged ; 1 ]
End If

Text parsing in FileMaker: Left, Right, Middle, and Position Date functions in FileMaker: Date, Day, Month, Year, DayName, DayOfYear