Find FileMaker timestamps within a day without losing late records

Give the day two boundaries

A report for 21 October should include an event at midnight that starts that day and one late that evening. It should exclude midnight at the start of 22 October. Thinking in two boundaries makes that rule easier to review than guessing the last possible instant.

Events::OccurredAt >= $start and Events::OccurredAt < $endExclusive

This is a half-open interval: the beginning is included, the end is excluded. Adjacent days meet at one boundary without both claiming the same event. The expression describes membership; it is not text to paste into Find mode.

Construct timestamps from a Date value

Set Variable [ $day ; Value: Date ( 10 ; 21 ; 2026 ) ]
Set Variable [ $start ; Value: Timestamp ( $day ; Time ( 0 ; 0 ; 0 ) ) ]
Set Variable [ $endExclusive ; Value: Timestamp ( $day + 1 ; Time ( 0 ; 0 ; 0 ) ) ]

For a user-selected day, use a validated Date field and reject an empty or invalid selection before searching. Avoid interpreting an ambiguous string such as 10/11/2026 in several different regional formats. The Date function’s arguments above are month, day and year.

On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Use an inclusion request and an omission request

In a separate Events review window, first include timestamps on or after the start. Add a second request that omits timestamps on or after the next day. Omission requests remove their matches from the included records. Keep this example in one authorized business scope; a date filter is not record-access security.

Set Error Capture [ On ]
Go to Layout [ "Events" (Events) ]
Enter Find Mode [ Pause: Off ]
Set Field [ Events::OccurredAt ; ">=" & GetAsText ( $start ) ]
New Record/Request
Set Field [ Events::OccurredAt ; ">=" & GetAsText ( $endExclusive ) ]
Omit Record
Perform Find [ ]
Set Variable [ $error ; Value: Get ( LastError ) ]
If [ $error = 401 ]
    Exit Script [ Text Result: "No events for this day." ]
Else If [ $error <> 0 ]
    Exit Script [ Text Result: "Find failed: " & $error ]
End If
Exit Script [ Text Result: Get ( FoundCount ) ]

GetAsText converts the constructed timestamps to the file’s textual representation for these criteria. Verify the actual file’s regional settings. Do not replace this with an ISO string and assume that every FileMaker file will interpret it identically.

Decide whose day you mean

A FileMaker Timestamp value does not carry a time-zone identifier. If your source stores UTC while the report is for a local business day, translate both local boundaries using a reliable time-zone rule before comparing them with UTC data.

A fixed offset is insufficient where daylight-saving rules apply. Some local days are shorter or longer than 24 hours. Keep the source timestamp and its interpretation documented. This article’s fixture deliberately uses one already-agreed business time zone; it does not implement a general time-zone conversion engine.

Check membership and adjacent days

Create the fixture timestamps using Date, Time and Timestamp from the numeric components in the review CSV. Expect T02, T03 and T04. Repeat for the following day: T05 belongs there, never in both results. Test a date with no events and confirm the displayed total becomes zero.

If your source supports fractional seconds, add a value immediately before the next-day boundary. For a UTC-backed production report, separately test a daylight-saving transition in the business zone. Keep those results distinct from this local fixture.

Try the small review fixture

The fictional data and review notes below accompany this article. They are not a FileMaker application, and they do not establish native test results.

• timestamps.csv
• Expected record IDs and counts (JSON)
• Setup and native review instructions

References

Documentation checked on 21 October 2026. This review does not establish native execution or hosted compatibility.

• Finding numbers, dates, times and timestamps
• Finding records that match multiple criteria
• Timestamp