I have just begun and thought I understood setting up
relationships...but when I created the first form to use 3
different related tables, I get no data in the report
though the data view shows all is in order. Please help.
How did you "create the form"? You've given us next to no information
to go on - clearly there's something wrong, but since you don't say
what you have done, it's a bit hard to say what you've done wrong.
AT A GUESS though, you created a Query joining the three tables and
based the form upon this query. The way relational databases work is
that if you take the default Join type (Inner Join it's called)
between two tables, you will see only those records for which data
exists in BOTH tables. If there is no corresponding record in the
second table, you see nothing at all.
Normally one would create a Form for the "one" side table, with one or
more Subforms for the "many" side tables. This lets you see the data
for the tables on the same screen, and automatically maintains the
linkage if you create a new record on the subform.
A Report can be handled similarly - a Report with Subreports - or you
can change the join type in the Query. Select the join line and choose
"Show all records in TableA and matching records in TableB" - the
report will now show TableA records even if they have no match in
TableB.
