Another question... total fields that WRITE TO THE TABLE

[LadySharon]

Hi again... I'm getting a little frustrated I figured out how to do
total fields in a form... just simple ones ... for example price +
shipping. But it won't SAVE in the bleepidy bleep table!

I tryed makeing the field in the table itself... but it won't accept
expressions. (I might be doing something wrong)
I kept the field as "total" formated as "currentcy" and went into the
form and changed it there... and it worked but it STILL WON'T SAVE TO
THE TABLE!!!

IF you can't do this easly then microsoft access is a piece of junk
because this should be a basic function. And I shouldn't have to do
it with a complex query or anything like that... if it displays on the
form it should save in the table darn it!


Thank you for any help.

- Sharon

 

[MacDermott]

My Dear Lady!

Access is not a spreadsheet application, like Excel.

Access is a relational database application, where data is generally not
stored redundantly.
If you are storing price and quantity, for example, Access does not expect
to store their product as well, as it can be recalculated on demand.
As you have already learned, it is a relatively simple matter to display
this product on a form.

While it is possible to "override" this design feature, this does require
somewhat more advanced programming skills.

You might want to take another look at what you want to accomplish with your
database.
It may be that Excel is better suited to your needs than Access.

HTH
- Turtle

 

[Rick Brandt]

Hi again... I'm getting a little frustrated I figured out how to do
total fields in a form... just simple ones ... for example price +
shipping. But it won't SAVE in the bleepidy bleep table!

I tryed makeing the field in the table itself... but it won't accept
expressions. (I might be doing something wrong)
I kept the field as "total" formated as "currentcy" and went into the
form and changed it there... and it worked but it STILL WON'T SAVE TO
THE TABLE!!!

IF you can't do this easly then microsoft access is a piece of junk
because this should be a basic function. And I shouldn't have to do
it with a complex query or anything like that... if it displays on the
form it should save in the table darn it!

Sorry, but you are absolutely wrong. Proper design dictates that you do not
store values easily derived from other values (that is why it isn't so easy to
do).

Remove your Total field from the table. Create a SELECT query that includes all
fields from your table and one additional *calculated* field that produces the
Total. Then just use the query in all places where you would otherwise have
used the table.

It will take care of your problem, will take all of 30 seconds to accomplish,
AND you will be doing things properly.