PatternCount() in calculations

Beginner

Use PatternCount() to count substring occurrences, validate list membership, and build conditional logic based on text patterns.

What you'll learn

How PatternCount() matches substrings case-insensitively
How to check value-list membership with padded PatternCount()
How to count word occurrences in a text block
Common pitfalls with partial substring matching

PatternCount(text; searchString) returns the number of times searchString appears in text, case-insensitively. This makes it useful not just for counting but for checking membership, validating formats, and detecting multi-keyword conditions in a single calculation.

Stuck is a valid status

Need a second brain on this one?

If this lesson just collided with your real schema, script stack, or deadline, book consulting and turn the confusion into a concrete plan.

Book consulting

1/4

Basic PatternCount() usage

PatternCount counts every occurrence of searchString in text, including overlapping positions. It is case-insensitive.

FileMaker Script

PatternCount ( "FileMaker is great. FileMaker is fast." ; "FileMaker" )
// -> 2

PatternCount ( "hello WORLD" ; "world" )
// -> 1  (case-insensitive)

PatternCount ( "banana" ; "an" )
// -> 2  (positions 2 and 4)

Position() function and multi-occurrence finding Middle(), Left(), Right() complex parsing