* Understanding FH Queries

[E Wilcock]

I am sorry to say that I do not understand FH Queries, even after reading Chapter 17 of the book. I am ashamed that I have such difficulty learning FH, but it seems the instruction book is packed with information about formatting reports and exporting them.

I want a filtered list of people.

I am used to database software TMG in which one could filter a list of people to show individuals for whom any selected fact field included any chosen (typed in) data.

For instance I could filter the list for individuals whose Nationality (fact or attribute) was German.

And, working on world war one I could selected men who were born within a particular date range AND who died between 1914 and 1918.

How would one do this in FH?

One could even combine the above conditions and find young men likely to have died in the Germany army. And so likely to be on the German War graves list.

[Hanning]

I confess to having the same issues - I too come from TMG (and a number of other programs previously) and have a reasonable amount of experience amending other databases. I understand database concepts but the particular formatting in FH requires a lot of learning. When I imported my data, a Died fact was automatically entered if there was a burial fact. I would dearly love to batch delete all these empty Died facts but can't even manage a query to identify them!
I also appreciate that extensive help available - manual and through this form - but sometimes find it hard to understand - I guess when you know it backwards, frontwards and inside out it can be tricky to understand how others cannot grasp the concepts that are so familiar.

[Valkrider]

Have you looked at one of the standard queries?

A good way of learning about queries is to look at the standard ones and see how they work and then trying a few modifications and checking out the results.

[tatewise]

Assuming the book "Getting the Most From Family Historian" has not changed its Chapter numbers in going from V5 to V6, then Chapter 17 Reports is nothing at all to do with Queries.

As it says in how_to:creating_a_query|> Creating a Query see the book Chapter 13 Introduction to Queries and Chapter 14 Writing Custom Queries, and study the KB advice about the Query Window four tabs, then come back here with more questions.

Think of the Result Set of the Query Window as similar to the Records Window, with Columns of data fields, and one Row per record.
In the Query Window, the Columns tab specifies what data field columns to display, and the Rows tab specifies which records to include and is where the query filtering takes place.
For your example of Nationality = German and Born and Died on certain Dates those would be filtered on the Rows tab.
You would start with a new Custom Individual Query.
The 1st Rows tab filter would use the Condition: Exclude unless... with Expression: [...] Data Reference Assistant button to select the Attribute > National or Tribal Origin and Operator: matches a Value: of German.
The 2nd filter would be very similar but with Expression: for Event > Birth > Date that was later than a chosen date.
The 3rd filter would be similar for Event > Death > Date that was later than say 1914, and then repeated for was earlier than say 1918.

To find and then remove empty facts such Death events, then use fhugdownloads:contents:query_all_empty_facts|> Query:Fact ~ All Empty Facts. However, if someone is Buried then they must have Died, so it is usually a good idea to simply amend the Death event at least with an estimated Date a few days before the Burial Date. This usually helps when testing whether people are alive or not in order to apply privacy rules or set the Living Flag.

[E Wilcock]

Chapter 17 in the book I have - 2016 Edition of Getting the Most, Mike, is called Introduction to Queries.

I followed it and the tutorial and used the Sample Project to bring up lists for some of the standard queries.

I need someone who uses FH to explain please how to get a report finding the people who fulfill the conditions that I gave in my original post.

If this cannot be done in FH, I should be very surprised as it is basic to genealogy programmes. Trouble is that I dont know how to do it.

[brianlummis]

Mike - the chapter numbers have changed but I don't have the original to compare. I am attaching a copy of the new book's contents.

Book Contents.jpg (172.23 KiB) Viewed 12730 times

Brian

[DavidNewton]

I need someone who uses FH to explain please how to get a report finding the people who fulfill the conditions that I gave in my original post.

I think a problem here is that there are so many ways of applying conditions that it gets confusing. Let's address the simple Nationality issue first.

Open the Query Window by clicking the icon in the toolbar (to the left of the map pin)
Then click the cogwheel on the upper right and choose New Custom Query. You will be asked for a name, call it Nationality say and a query type Individual. Then click Create.

If you are going to print a report then select the General Tab and Fill in the print details: Title, Subtitle, Orientation and Multipage handling. If you are simply going to look at the results on screen then you can ignore this.

Now select the Columns Tab. You will find Individual already entered in the right pane. If you are simply looking for a list of individuals then there is no need to add any more columns. If you want to see Births and Deaths etc then add the appropriate columns selecting them from the left hand pane. For ease choose Nationality or Tribal Origin which is under Attributes. Double-click and it will be added to the column list.

Now select the Rows Tab. This is where the filtering is done and starts off empty. You make the queries in the bottom pane. There are various drop-downs.

Condition: Add if...
Expression: %INDI.NATI[1]% (This is obtained from the drop down there is no need to type this in)
Operator: matches now click the check box Parameter. This opens up a Label box, enter Nationality
Value: Leave blank or if you want, put in an initial value of German

Then click the add button at bottom right.

This simple query is done. Clicking the run button will list all those individuals with a Nationality... value matching the value entered.

To add further conditions for example filtering individuals born after a certain date then you can add another condition BUT remember that these conditions act one after the other. Therefore to filter the set keeping those with German Nationality and not adding others then you have to exclude from this set

So adding all individuals of German origin is your first condition.To filter all of them born after 1880, for example, then you must exclude from this set all those whose birth date is earlier than 1880.

Condition: Exclude if..
Expression: %INDI.BIRT[1].DATE% to get this click the ... button at the far right and then select Birth Date from the field list
Operator: was earlier than again click the check box Parameter and give a label Earliest Birth Date say
Value: Leave blank or put in an initial value of 1880
then Add the condition

and so on. For an upper limit of birth date
Exclude if %INDI.BIRT[1].DATE% was later than <Parameter>

and then a similar pair of conditions for Death Date.

David

[tatewise]

You probably need to continue with Chapter 18 Writing Custom Queries and how_to:creating_a_query|> Creating a Query.
I summarised the Query filters for your example in my previous reply.
Does it need to be a more detailed button by button explanation as supplied by David?

[Jane]

Have you looked at all the sample queries in the Knowledge base, there is already one to find "WW1 Possibles", you could simply download it and add your extra filter for the Nationality

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... _possibles

As Mike says you simply need to spend some time getting used to the way queries work in FH.

[Jane]

When I imported my data, a Died fact was automatically entered if there was a burial fact. I would dearly love to batch delete all these empty Died facts but can't even manage a query to identify them

Have you looked at the Blank Death Finder in the Knowledge base? This query should find them and includes instructions to delete them.

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... ath_finder

[E Wilcock]

Yes, Mike, with apologies, I think I did need David's step by step instructions. I will put my mind to this today.

With a big sigh of relief. There was a moment last night when I thought I might need to take my FH Project back to TMG.

The language used in FH is difficult for beginners. I did several times get a note that what I was doing constituted a custom query and the term custom frightened me off.

I come from software where one could easily select any field and any text within it. One wrote in the terms one was looking for and could save a filtered search but without using codes and without encountering the term custom or picturing oneself as a beginner "writing" custom queries.

I have a real problem with FH Help and instructions. As Mike found, the information is reorganised, updated and reissued in different ways. And responsibility is split between expert users (without whom I would have abandonned the attempt) and Simon Orde and Calico Pie

I found this on line.
"In the Family Historian Manual, Queries are defined as "stored sets of instructions which allow you to specify criteria for identifying a set of records of a given record type."
"Examples given are “Find me all the Individual records where the date-of-birth is later than the year 2000” and “Find me all the Family records where the father has ‘Paterson’ somewhere in his name, and the father’s birth-place includes the word ‘Australia’”.

The examples suggested would be exactly what I need - but this guidance seems to have vanished? Where is it now?

Jane, Thank you. I used the FWW only as an example because I have a FWW website so have done such searches in the past. And I have now downloaded that query.
However is there any way of opening and reading this and other queries, using Notepad perhaps? To see what other people have done when writing them?

It seems to me that the Help System for FH has been updated so many times and has become so increasingly complex as the software developed, that it is becoming impossible for new users like myself to find their way through it.

[davidm_uk]

The queries in the FHUG Knowledge Base can be found at http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... oads:index

If I need to produce a new query I always look through the standard queries and KB ones to see if there is anything similar (even vaguely, eg. an individual query vs a family query) to what I want, save that as a new custom query then use that as as the starting point to modify to achieve my result. That way you can modify a bit at a time and run it to check the result.

I don't think I have ever written a query from scratch!

[E Wilcock]

Yes David , But it by now a long list and I have read it countless times.

None coincide with the following - not as far as a I as a new user can see.

"Examples given are “Find me all the Individual records where the date-of-birth is later than the year 2000”

“Find me all the Family records where the father has ‘Paterson’ somewhere in his name, and the father’s birth-place includes the word ‘Australia’”.

Of course, it could just be that I still have on some distant back up, the FH Help from version 3. Because I have owned many versions over the years as I loved to use FH to show my kids and grandchildren (visually) the family trees. The program itself always defeated me.

[Jane]

When you open any Query in the Query window you can see the tabs which constitute the query and if it's a custom query change any of them.

Have you watched the video in the Knowledge base which builds a query from scratch? It can mostly be done with selecting from the list of fields.

http://fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=how ... ried_women

[tatewise]

I ran a Google Search for those embolden quotes and that took me straight to glossary:queries|> Queries that has links to further advice and is a direct quote from the book Getting the Most From Family Historian V5 in Chapter 13 Introduction to Queries which I suspect may be the same as in V6 Chapter 17 Introduction to Queries that you say you have read.

Chapter 14/18 Writing Custom Queries goes on to illustrate how to create those Name and Birth queries.

I suspect you simply have not explored the book in enough depth. So as I said earlier study the Chapter 18 tutorials.

BTW: You don't need Notepad or anything else to explore existing Queries. Just investigate the Columns and Rows tabs that are explained in the Chapters identified above.

[E Wilcock]

Fine Mike, Thank you. And yes I went to that page. But it gave no indication of which of the two links below led to the solution to that problem.

I told you I was avoiding customising - the language deterred me. So I clicked on the non customised link and got a massive list of the Queries. How was I to know that the simple answers I was searching for involved customisation.

I also feel - and it is one reason I have backed away from FH in the past - The instruction book - that great long list of queries to go through - makes disproportionate demands on the user. We are often very intelligent people but we are problem solving in our own field? The fh software is only a means to an end.

I looked for my Help to Version 3 but dont have it.

[E Wilcock]

And here is the list that confronted me yesterday and again today when I went to the custom queries.

How is a new user to know which of these links goes to

Examples given are “Find me all the Individual records where the date-of-birth is later than the year 2000” and “Find me all the Family records where the father has ‘Paterson’ somewhere in his name, and the father’s birth-place includes the word ‘Australia’”.

Instead one is faced with this -

Writing Your First Query
There is an introduction to Creating a Query that includes an animated tutorial.

Related Pages

Downloads and Links ~ Living People Identification
Downloads and Links ~ Queries
Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Fact
Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Family
Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Individual
Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Multimedia
Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Source
Queries Custom
Glossary of Terms
Queries
Standard Queries
Work With Record Identifiers
Create Work In Progress or Research To Do Lists
Creating a Query
Downloading a Custom Query
Family Historian FAQs

[E Wilcock]

That is why I and others drive you crazy by asking your help again and again.
At least I now know this can be done. So I dont need to flee back to TMG -

Examples given are “Find me all the Individual records where the date-of-birth is later than the year 2000” and “Find me all the Family records where the father has ‘Paterson’ somewhere in his name, and the father’s birth-place includes the word ‘Australia’”.

But I may now shelve this till after Christmas - too much to do and the important thing for me at this instant is to get my data entered.

[tatewise]

I believe you are mixing up the Family Historian Manual/book Getting the Most From Family Historian published by Calico Pie and the FHUG [kb]|[/kb] produced by FH users.

The quotes “Find me all the Individual records where the date-of-birth is later than the year 2000” and “Find me all the Family records where the father has ‘Paterson’ somewhere in his name, and the father’s birth-place includes the word ‘Australia’” are from the book and that is where you will find the worked examples, as I said in Chapter 18 Writing Custom Queries.

The list you mention is in the FHUG glossary:custom_query|> Custom Queries and offers Custom Queries written by other FH users over the years, and often provides a solution to common problems, but NOT an answer to those quotes from the book.

[Hanning]

Thank you to those who gave me guidelines on how to remove my empty Died facts - like many others I am sure, I do prefer not have have calculated births and deaths if I actually have baptisms and burials and are never likely to have correct birth and death dates.

[E Wilcock]

Yesterday I followed David's guidelines and created a Custom Query.
Some subsiduary questions.

I watched Jane's video on creating a custom query and the screen led me to believe it was one of a series ending with how to put a flag on people found with a query. I didnt find this video.
And I played around with Queries provided in the Sample Project to discover how to use the cog wheel to add a flag to Row records.
What does Row Records mean?

My results set was not altogether successful in displaying the columns I hoped for.

After my typing data into the wrong people's boxes, my query was made to check that I had a census entry address for people of a particular nationality whom I had entered on a particular day or two.
I wanted the record ID to show and for the results table to be sorted on Record ID.

I tried (from Miscellaneous) Permanent Record No and Automated Record ID and a few other options, but couldnt get the numbers to show. Or to sort. Always an empty column.

[DavidNewton]

Adding a Flag to the result set of a query: Select any one and then type Ctrl+A this selects them all. Go to Edit>Record Flags and choose the flag you wish to apply to all the records or create a new flag to apply.
Row Records are the individual records in the rows of the result set.
To get Columns you have to add them into the Columns on the Columns tab. As you have discovered some are not so simple as selecting from the Navigation Tree in the left pane.
To add a record ID enter the following into the box at the bottom of the right pane in the Columns tab.
Heading: RecordID (or whatever you want)
Expression: =RecordId()
Sort: Ascending or Descending (your choice)
Type: Normal
Then click the Add button. This will put RecordID at the end of the list. Select it and then use the up/down arrows in the status bar of the Columns list to place it where you wnt.

David

[E Wilcock]

Thank you again - I think what I am doing wrong is to write in the column heading and believe that puts in the data too -

That would explain all the blank columns I was getting.

[E Wilcock]

I have managed custom queries.
But am still having difficulties with queries.

I tried to use the Named Lists queries first on my own project and then on the FH Sample Project.
What am I doing wrong? The fields are all greyed out, so I cant enter the name of a list. Greyed out on all three tabs. And even if I highlight the condition in rows.

[DavidNewton]

On that particular query you get the opportunity to put in the list name when you run the query. On a more general point you cannot edit standard queries. For example if you try to add a column you will get an error message:

This ia standard query and not editable, but you can make a copy of it as a custom query and edit this copy. Do you wish to do that?

This can be a usful way to make custom queries by choosing a query which does largely what you want and editing it to do precisely what you want.

David