TextFormatRemove() and text style manipulation

Beginner

Use TextFormatRemove() to strip character-level formatting from text values and understand how FileMaker stores text styles in field data.

What you'll learn

How FileMaker stores character-level formatting in text fields
How to strip formatting with TextFormatRemove()
How text formatting affects calculations and comparisons
How to apply formatting programmatically with TextStyleAdd()

FileMaker text fields can store character-level formatting -- bold, italic, color, font, size -- embedded in the field value alongside the text content. When a text value carries hidden formatting, comparisons and concatenations can produce unexpected results. TextFormatRemove() strips all character-level styles, returning the plain text string.

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Why formatting causes comparison problems

If a user pastes bold text into a field, the field value contains both the text and embedded styling. When you compare that value to a literal string, the comparison may fail even though the visible text matches.

FileMaker Script

// Field contains "Active" with bold formatting embedded
// This comparison may return false:
Contacts::Status = "Active"

// Strip formatting before comparing:
TextFormatRemove ( Contacts::Status ) = "Active"  // reliable

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