* Need query help

[BakerJL75]

I think understand a simple query, like list everyone who died before 1940. But I can't figure out more complex ones.

I would like a query that lists every ancestor (only ancestors) who has a 1940 census fact (specifically, has a census fact whose date contains 1940). I can make a query to show the ancestors. I can make a query that shows everyone who has a 1940 census event. But I can't make a query that does both. It doesn't seem there is any Boolean logic to the query window. I'm sure I'm missing something, probably obvious, but how do you make a query with AND, OR, NOT, etc.

I'd also like to read (or even watch a video) about queries, but something more advanced that list everyone's death date or something. I've looked but not found much.

[tatewise]

Have you found the FH Help page for the Query Window?
With that window open click the F1 keyboard key to open the associated Help page.
( This works throughout FH and in many other Windows applications as a standard Help shortcut. )

Follow the link to The Rows Tab and it explains how multiple filters are handled.
Sometimes you need a little ingenuity with whether to Add or Exclude and what order to use.

However, sometimes even that won't yield a solution so then you must use the =IsTrue(...) function.
That supports multiple conditions with and and or and not boolean operators.
Have you found the Help page for Operators?

A lot of the above is in the FHUG KB An Overview of Queries with tutorials.

[BakerJL75]

I had read those, and read them again. I'm not usually this thick headed. Here is what I've tried (only the rows, that is where my problem lies):

Add if %INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930'
Exclude unless an ancestor of [""]

Independently the top one gives me all the people with a 1930 census.
And independently the exclude one gives me a list of ancestors.

But both together are incorrect.

Add if %INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930'
Exclude unless an ancestor of [""]

Gives me 3 ancestors with1930 census and there are many more.

Exclude unless an ancestor of [""]
Add if %INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930'

Gives me ancestors, non-ancestors, 1930 census, 1870 census, etc. I can't even see a pattern to what it outputs.

I've tried variations with %INDI.CENS[1].DATE:YEAR% as well.

I'm sure I've got some logic problem going on with add if/exclude, etc. But haven't figured it out.
I am wondering if the issue is that people have more than one census fact. But then I don't understand why

[tatewise]

Your analysis seems OK up to a point

The idea of having an Add if followed by an Exclude unless is perfect.
It does not matter which Condition goes with which Expression.
So
Add if %INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930'
Exclude unless an ancestor of [""]
is logically the same as
Add if an ancestor of [""]
Exclude unless %INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930'

%INDI.CENS.DATE% contains text '1930' is essentially the same as %INDI.CENS.DATE:YEAR% equals 1930

Be aware that those are only testing the 1st Census event in each Individual, i.e. %INDI.CENS[1].DATE%.
So if an individual has both a 1920 Census and a 1930 Census then that person will NOT be included.
Therefore, I suspect your assertion that "the top one gives me all the people with a 1930 census" is incorrect.
I think it only lists people whose 1st Census was in 1930.

To include everyone who has a 1930 Census could be achieved using:
Add if %INDI.CENS[1].DATE% contains text '1930'
Add if %INDI.CENS[2].DATE% contains text '1930'
Add if %INDI.CENS[3].DATE% contains text '1930' et al
But there is a shortcut:
Exclude if %INDI.CENS[year=1930]% is null which finds any Census event with a Date in 1930.

Also bear in mind that an ancestor of [""] includes only direct line ancestors.

[BakerJL75]

Thanks Mike. Got it working. Part of my problem was I output one census year, but it wasn't necessarily 1930 depending on how many census there were. If the column output 1900, then that individual did have a 1930 census, it just wasn't the one displayed.

[tatewise]

You can also use %INDI.CENS[year=1930]% in a Column expression to always display the 1930 Census regardless of what others there may be present.

If you need this query to work for a variety of Census years then you can prompt for the year too but the Column expression is a bit more complex:
=GetField(%INDI%,"%INDI.CENS[year=" . ["Year"] . "]%")

Similarly, the Rows filter expression gets more complex:
Exclude if =GetField(%INDI%,"%INDI.CENS[year=" . ["Year"] . "]%") is null