alternative to a look-up combo/list box

[Nydia]

I read that it was not a good idea to use a look-up
combo/list box in a field, can someone explain to me why
and what would be the alternative method instead of a
combo/list box.

example;
table one has name, address, city, zip

table two has a bunch of cities

so, I would usualy use the look-up wizard in the city
field and the pick table two for the list to pick from.
any input on this is greatly appreciated

 

[Rick Brandt]

I read that it was not a good idea to use a look-up
combo/list box in a field, can someone explain to me why
and what would be the alternative method instead of a
combo/list box.

example;
table one has name, address, city, zip

table two has a bunch of cities

so, I would usualy use the look-up wizard in the city
field and the pick table two for the list to pick from.
any input on this is greatly appreciated

The alternative is to use forms for your interface. Then you can add a
ComboBox to the form that provides the exact same lookup feature without
having it built into the table. The reasons it is frowned upon in tables
are numerous, but (IMO) the biggest problem is that obscures what data is
actually in the table because it stores one thing while displaying another.
This is a perfectly acceptable thing for a form or report to do, but not
for a table. People who don't understand how they work are often confused
when it comes to building queries against the tables with this feature
because now the query pulls in the actual data, not the lookup data.
Overall, it just encourages people to use tables as the data entry
interface which is just not a good idea.

 

[John Vinson]

I read that it was not a good idea to use a look-up
combo/list box in a field, can someone explain to me why
and what would be the alternative method instead of a
combo/list box.

See http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm for a thorough
discussion.

example;
table one has name, address, city, zip

table two has a bunch of cities

so, I would usualy use the look-up wizard in the city
field and the pick table two for the list to pick from.
any input on this is greatly appreciated

The alternative is that you DO use a combo box - but use it on a Form,
not in a table datasheet.

Table datasheets are very limited and should *not* be used for much of
anything other than design and debugging. Routine data entry should be
done on a Form, and it's perfectly normal and good design to use Combo
Boxes ("lookups") on a Form.