Table occurrences: what they are and how to name them

Beginner

Understand that FileMaker's Relationships Graph shows table occurrences, not tables — and learn why a single table can and should appear multiple times in the graph.

What you'll learn

The difference between a table and a table occurrence
Why you need multiple TOs of the same table
How to establish a consistent naming convention for TOs

A table occurrence (TO) is a reference to a table in the Relationships Graph — not the table itself. The same underlying table can have many TOs, each representing a different relationship context.

1/3

Understand that tables and TOs are separate

When you create a table, FileMaker automatically creates one TO with the same name. But you can add more TOs pointing to the same table via Tables/Occurrences > Add Table Occurrence. The data lives in the table — the TO is just a context-specific window onto it.

FileMaker Script

# One underlying table: "Employees"
# Can have many TOs:
Employees               ← default TO, base for Employees layout
e_Reports               ← buoy: employees reporting to this employee (self-join)
e_Manager               ← buoy: the manager of this employee (self-join)
hr_Employees            ← anchor for HR layout
p_Employees             ← buoy: employees on a specific project

The Anchor-Buoy methodology for the Relationships Graph Relationship-based value lists and the second-field display