Lookup Properties in Table Design

[Sandy]

Am reallly confused on combo/list box. If i go as per guidllines, bound
coulmn means value from row source and column count means column displayes.
When i work on these, it does'nt give results as told. Example ; If i setting
bound column to 2 and column count to 2, it should have values from coulmn 2
and display should be 2 columns. But it does'nt happen. Compbo box displays 2
coulmns, but value in table appears as 1. If we i change bound columns
settings to 1 and column count to 3, in this case values become of col 2. Am
totally confused...

 

[tina]

the strong (though not universal) consensus among experienced developers,
including MVPs, in these newsgroups is: don't use Lookup fields in tables,
period.
for more information, see http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm

hth

 

[Lynn Trapp]

Sandy,
First of all, tina's advice about using table level lookup fields is dead
on. As you are seeing, attempting to use them at the table level can be very
confusing. Second, what you need to do is simply use a raw value in the
table and, if you need to use a combobox for lookup, then do it on a data
entry form. When you do that you need to understand what the various
properties are.

1. Bound Column - this is the column from the row source that is bound to
the table that is the recordsource for your form. Typically this is a
numeric value.
2. Column Count - this is the number of columns from your combobox's row
source that CAN be displayed when the list is dropped down.
3. Column Widths - this is the amount of width that you allot for the
various columns displaying. For example, if you have 3 columns in your
combobox's rowsource and set the column count to 3 and the column width as
"1","1", "1", then all 3 columns will display. However, if you set the
column width property to "0","1","1", then only the last 2 columns will
display. If you set it to "1","0","1" then only the first and third columns
will display.

--
Lynn Trapp
MS Access MVP
www.ltcomputerdesigns.com
Access Security: www.ltcomputerdesigns.com/Security.htm
Jeff Conrad's Access Junkie List:
http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie.html

 

[John Vinson]

column count means column displayes.

I think this is where you're misinterpreting. The Column Count does
NOT set how many columns display in the way you think.

It sets how many columns are included in the combo box's data. These
will be displayed when the combo is dropped down (depending on the
width of the combo box itself and the ColumnWidths property, some may
get truncated); but only one single column, the first nonzero width
column in ColumnWidths, is actually shown when the combo is not
dropped down.

I concur with the other advice you're getting about table lookups.
Avoid them. They provide VERY little benefit, and cause major
confusion by concealing the actual contents of your table.

John W. Vinson[MVP]