Lookups and forms

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Clifford
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M

Michael Clifford

My knowledge of Access is spotty: Heavy on VB programming (out of necessity
with a new job) but short on some of the other skills.

Specifically, I've created tables to support a 1-many-many situation. Table
lookups and referential integrity (linked tables to SQL Server) do exactly
what's needed.

The problem: None of this works if subforms are created and placed into a
parent form. There's no pull down in each field to perform the lookup to
another as there is if just tables are used.

So, how are lookups done inside forms? Is a ton of programming in forms
required or have I missed something?

Please advise and thanks.

Michael Clifford
 
The problem: None of this works if subforms are created and placed into a
parent form. There's no pull down in each field to perform the lookup to
another as there is if just tables are used.

So, how are lookups done inside forms? Is a ton of programming in forms
required or have I missed something?
Click to expand...

The "Lookup Field" is one of the worst misfeatures Microsoft ever
invented. It causes a vast amount of confusion in return for a
miniscule benefit (it makes it a little bit easier to put a combo box
control on a Form).

Your Form can use Combo Box controls to "look up" data in related
tables. It's not called a lookup, but functionally that's what it
does. Just use the Toolbox combo tool, with the magic wand icon
selected; if you use a Continuous Form rather than the default
datasheet for your subform, you can put any type of control you like
on the subform. (You can actually use a Combo Box for the datasheet
too, but I've never seen any benefit to doing so).
 
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