"Other" in combo box with Look up Table

  • Thread starter Thread starter oscar
  • Start date Start date
O

oscar

I am trying to keep the possible values for "Category"
field to be consistent for all records in my table.What is
the best way to to deal with the "Other" value in a Combo
Box that has a look up to another table? I want the user
to able to input the "Other" item (other being a place
holder to fill in their value that is not on the combo box
list) in the Look up source table and the table that
contains the combo box, right? I am trying to keep the
possible values for this field to be consistent for all
records in my table.
 
Hum, it not clear if you just need a "other" option in the comb list, or if
in fact if your users select "other", then you want to pull a different
value from somewhere to display in a report?

It is important that you be clear on the above situation.

So, if a user selects other in the combo list, then they are to have a free
form text box where they can entry any value they want? Is this kind of the
idea you are getting at?

What I would do in the above is simply add a "other" selection to the combo
box. Then, in the table, I would add a new field called OtherComments.

When you run a report, you simply could concatenation the combo box value
and the OtherComments field. Since the OtherComents field would be generally
blank, then the report would display:

cboFavorateFood OtherComments
Apple Pie
Steak
Other Peaches and Oysters

Or you could as mentioned concat both fields, and the report would look
like:

FavorateFoods
-------------
Apple Pie
Steak
Other : Peaches and Oysters


The text box for the above would be:

txtFav:([FavoreFood] + (":" + [OtherComments]))

So, if the user selects other, and fills out the other text box, the above
seems to be quite workable. I would also suggest that you consider allow
your users to "add" to the combo box list on the fly, so that new entries
automatically become a new choice for all users.
 
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