can I use the same field more than once in a form ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I need to include in form a place to record when 2 different reports are due.
It is based on grants that have mulitple reports. I want the user to be able
to choose the month and cooresponding reports that are due. I can not figure
out how to do this without using the same field more than once in my form.
That changes the name of my field to a label and a number. I have been
looking at this for too long and seem to find the answer. Any help is greatly
appreciated. Thanks
 
If I'm understanding this correctly, I would set up a one to many
relationship with another table. Then you could have not 2 but 100
corresponding reports.

Table1 would be for Grants
Table2 would be for Reports

tblGrants has
GrantID

tblReports has
ReportID (Primary Key for Reports table)
GrantID (Foreign Key from the Grants table)

tblReports gets made into a Parent form
tblGrants gets made into a Child subform

and GrantID is the Parent/Child link

Is this making any sense?
 
To be honest, no. I understand the concept, but the application of it, I do
not understand. Let me try to be more specific. I have set up a table to keep
track of grants. I am now woring on my form. All grants have muliple reports
that are due during different months of the year. One grant could require two
different reports due in the same month. I created two fields, one for each
of 2 reports. I then created a field for each month of year. My plan was to
have the user click each month that a report was due. I inserted the name of
the report and then listed all the months under the report. I then inserted
the name of the next report and when I began to drag the month of the year
fields from the list of fields into the form, Access renamed the field to a
label with a number. All I want to do is run a report by month and see all
the reports that are due for that month. The parent/child thing with subforms
might be a little over my level of experience. I am willing to learn and am
using the Access for dummy book. I still need help. If I have to add more
table etc., I will give it a try but I need more direction. Thanks so much.
 
To be honest, no. I understand the concept, but the application of it, I do
not understand. Let me try to be more specific. I have set up a table to keep
track of grants. I am now woring on my form. All grants have muliple reports
that are due during different months of the year. One grant could require two
different reports due in the same month. I created two fields, one for each
of 2 reports.
Click to expand...

That was your mistake.

"Fields are expensive, records are cheap". You're using spreadsheet
logic (just add another column) but relational databases are not
spreadsheets!

If you have a One (grants) to Many (reports) relationship, you need
TWO TABLES: a table of Grants, related one to many to Reports. The
Reports table would have a GrantID field to link each report to the
corresponding grant. If a given grant had fourteen reports, there'd be
fourteen records with that GrantID in the Reports table.
I then created a field for each month of year.
Click to expand...

And that's another example of spreadsheet thinking! Have a DueDate
field in the Reports table, and use a Query to select all reports due
within a particular date range.
My plan was <unfortunately very much in the wrong direction>. If I have to add more
table etc., I will give it a try but I need more direction. Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

Access for Dummies is a pretty good book *for what it does* - which is
mainly using existing Access applications. It is too limited for what
you're trying to accomplish I fear! CHeck out some of the resources
at:

http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie/resources.html
and
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources





John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
Thank you John, This is most helpful. It sounds like what I need to do, I'm
just not sure if I am capable to doing it. I'm pretty good at reading and
applying what I read, but this sounds a little challenging.
Thanks.
 
Thank you John, This is most helpful. It sounds like what I need to do, I'm
just not sure if I am capable to doing it. I'm pretty good at reading and
applying what I read, but this sounds a little challenging.
Click to expand...

Check out the references I posted, especially the "Database Design
101" links at Jeff's website. There are some good tutorials that will
help you up the steep, rocky parts of the Access learning curve!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
Back
Top