combo box in table and/or form

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christopher Glaeser
  • Start date Start date
C

Christopher Glaeser

Need some help with combo box design. I think it is possible to attach the
combo box property to both a table field and/or the form field for that
table field. Is that correct? What are the implications if the table field
is just text, and the form field is combo box? What are the implications if
both are combo box?

Best,
Christopher
 
Christopher,
Just to get you started...
Your form willl be based on a table or query.
A combo box on that form will have 2 important properties... the
ControlSource and the RowSource.
The ControlSource is where you indicate the field in your form's table
that will store the value you select in that combo box.
The RowSource property is the list of values the user will choose from.
This is table or query (usually a query) that yields a column of legitimate
values to choose from in the combo box.
So...
combo box property to both a table field and/or the form field for that
table field. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Yes your on the right track...

If the ControlSource of your combo boix is a text field, then set up your
RowSource query to display text values that the user can select from. If
it's a numeric field, then your query should set up RowSource to allow
selection of legitimate numeric values.

hth
Al Camp
 
Need some help with combo box design. I think it is possible to attach the
combo box property to both a table field and/or the form field for that
table field. Is that correct? What are the implications if the table field
is just text, and the form field is combo box? What are the implications if
both are combo box?

Best,
Christopher
Click to expand...

While it is possible (with Access 200x) to put a combo box in a Table,
the general consensus is that this is a feature of very limited value
and a great many downsides. See
http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm for a critique.

Don't confuse data STORAGE with data DISPLAY. A combo box *is not
data* - it's a tool for displaying data from one table based on a
value in a different table. When you put a combo in a Table, it
*CONCEALS* the actual contents of the table - a numeric ID - behind
the looked-up text. This can lead to the exact confusion that your
message evinces; if the Table contains a lookup field it *appears* to
be text BUT IT ISN'T.


John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
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While it is possible (with Access 200x) to put a combo box in a Table,
the general consensus is that this is a feature of very limited value
and a great many downsides. See
http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm for a critique.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I had a hunch a combo box on a table might prove problematic. I'll
delete them from my table design, and put them on the forms only.

Best,
Christopher
 
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