Access "autofill" questions

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G

Guest

I am currently using Microsoft Access 2000 and I am interested in being able to use some sort of "autofill". ( I am not sure if this is the correct term to use or not) I would like to be able to enter in a (for example) customer number and have all of their information (name, address, etc.) automatically filled in. I am comfortable with Access but this problem is very frusterating, especially since I am not sure of the correct term to use to ask the paperclip or to look in the book. Any feedback or help would be appreciated. Please only e mail if you are truly trying to help. Thank you
 
I am currently using Microsoft Access 2000 and I am interested in being able to use some sort of "autofill". ( I am not sure if this is the correct term to use or not) I would like to be able to enter in a (for example) customer number and have all of their information (name, address, etc.) automatically filled in. I am comfortable with Access but this problem is very frusterating, especially since I am not sure of the correct term to use to ask the paperclip or to look in the book. Any feedback or help would be appreciated. Please only e mail if you are truly trying to help. Thank you
Click to expand...

There are two ways to interpret your request:

- If you want to be able to (say) select a customer number from a
dropdown box ("combo box") and display the data for that customer on
the form, you can create a Form based on the customer table; use the
Toolbox (with the "magic wand" icon selected) to create a Combo Box on
the form. The wizard should give you the option of "use this combo box
to find a record".

- If you want to copy all of the customer data from the Customer table
into some other table... DON'T! You're using a relational database;
the customer information should be stored only once, and you should
use a Query to link to it.

If you'ld post a bit more detail we'll be happy to try to help. Note
that this is NOT Email, and that a) for your safety and spam
protection you should not post a valid EMail address and b) most of
the volunteers here prefer to answer in the newsgroups, not by private
email.
 
I guess what I am after is to type in a customer number (in a form) and have the name and address filled in automatically for me. We have alot of repeat customers and this process would make things much easier. I am comfortable with microsoft access, but I do not know the "language" very well, so please explain it as if I was a child. Please let me know if you need any other information to help me with this. Thank you.
 
Look up the DLookup function in help.(from Albert Kallal)

To retrieve one value, you can use dlookup

So, if we have some part numbers, and we need the part
description, then you
can use dlookup in a form.

If you are using a report, then using the query builder
makes the need for
lookup obsolete, as you can just drop in the other table,
and do a join.

So, or a text box, you can use:

=dlookup("field value to grab","the table name","the condtion")

=dlookup("PartDescription","tblParts","partnum = 123")

The above would lookup the pardescription text from table
parts, and the
partnum is 123

If the partnumber was a field on the form, then you could use:

=dlookup("PartDescription","tblParts","partnum = " & [partnum])

Jim

Jim
-----Original Message-----
I am currently using Microsoft Access 2000 and I am
Click to expand...
interested in being able to use some sort of "autofill". (
I am not sure if this is the correct term to use or not) I
would like to be able to enter in a (for example) customer
number and have all of their information (name, address,
etc.) automatically filled in. I am comfortable with
Access but this problem is very frusterating, especially
since I am not sure of the correct term to use to ask the
paperclip or to look in the book. Any feedback or help
would be appreciated. Please only e mail if you are truly
trying to help. Thank you
 
I guess what I am after is to type in a customer number (in a form) and have the name and address filled in automatically for me. We have alot of repeat customers and this process would make things much easier. I am comfortable with microsoft access, but I do not know the "language" very well, so please explain it as if I was a child. Please let me know if you need any other information to help me with this. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Microsoft Access is a relational database. If you want to use it
effectively, you need to use it *as* a relational database.

One basic principle of relational databases is what I call the
"Grandmother's Pantry Principle:" "a place - ONE place! - for
everything, everything in its place".

You should have one Table for every kind of entity (real life person,
thing or event) of importance to your application. A Customer table
would have all of the information for a customer stored... ONLY ONCE.
When you get that same customer coming back, you should NOT fill in
the name and address in a new record; you should instead simply use
the *existing* record. If a given customer has many purchases (and of
course you hope so!), you would have TWO tables in a one to many
relationship - Customers related one to many to Purchases. The
Purchases table would not contain any information about the customer
other than the unique CustomerID as a link to the Customers table.

A Form (for Customers) with a Subform (for Purchases) is a handy way
to manage this. You would be able to *find* the existing customer
record (say in the AfterUpdate event of a customer textbox, or better
a combo box to allow you to pick from a list of known ID's rather than
having to type the ID exactly); the combo box wizard I suggested will
do this, or if you prefer to type the ID, it's not that hard to do.
The Subform would show all the purchases for that ID and allow you to
add more.

You may want to take a look at the Northwind sample database that
comes with Access; it does exactly what you are describing.
 
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