Just remember that in a good relation database you will have tons of
lookups.
When you build quires, you will have lots of other tables you drop in.
However, the ONLY bad guy here is defining and using the lookup feature at
the table design level.
So, I just want you be 100% clear on that many access developers avoid the
table lookup feature...as it often gets in the way. However, this in no way
does not mean that we use tons of lookups in a database. As a matter of
general database design, we will have all kinds of lookups in the
application...but just avoid that table lookup feature.
In place of the lookup feature at the table level, we most certainly use the
combo box wizard when making a form. And, to be fair..if your existing table
lookups work, then you can use them.
Comments follow:
Well, now that I know that using the LookUp Wd to enter my
own values is a "no-no" I can already feel the pain!
Some people actually use them without problems. After all, that feature was
put in to make things easy...but that easy way tends to bite you later on!
With
what I have entered as data, I can already foresee probs.
Is there a way to remove the Fields Name in my underlying
Table(which is a LookUp) and make another Table with names
only?
Did you use a value list, or in fact did you create another table anyway
(the bad lookup wizard lets you do both.! If you just used a value
list..then un-doing this is VERY easy).
Just to add a little difficulty to myself
I
already have some data that is entered and other objects
like queries, forms, reports...though I would mind redoing
those it would only be the being able to swap the names in
the table without having to re-enter all those names again.
Your above is the problem! If you used another table, then you can simply
remove the lookup feature of that particular field. In this case, you will
have to change reports and forms that used this (that can be a Lot of work.
I have a old application that has a few lookups via the table wizard...and I
have not removed them due to it risking the breakage of the application).
However, you can get rid of the lookup if two tables are involved. For
forms, simply delete the control on the form and then re-create using the
combo box wizard (we do all of this stuff AFTER you have removed the lookup
stuff in the table).
For reports, simply delete the combo controls on the eh report, and then in
the query builder just drop in those additional lookup tables, and then drop
in the fields to the query grid (you MUST use left joins here....MAKE CARE
NOTE of what I just said - you must use left joins). Then, those lookup
values are available in the report as just regular fields that you can
display.
If you used a built in value list, then again, you can simply remote the
lookup stuff at the table level, and the existing data and reports will NOT
have to be changed if this was just a simple value list. If actually combos
were used on forms, or reports, then simply deleting, and then adding the
control back to the form will fix this. However, for forms, you will likely
have created a new table with the value list, and again thus use the combo
box wizard to let the user select those values into the field. For reports,
you don't have to do anything. This of course assumes your value list was a
simple list. If that value list was multi-column (if it was two
columns).....then you have to break out the existing list to another
table..and that be very tricky to do.
Hopefully you only used a value list with one collum.
To un-do the wizard, simply go to the table design view, and after selecting
the field, down below you can click on the "lookup" tab, and change the
control back to a text box. After you do this..then you do the above
instructions...
