Format Table or Form ?

[Graham]

Having recently corrupted my database, having spent ages finally getting some
cascading combo's to work, I've now recreated it, but want to avoid known
earlier errors.
I understand that data should always be entered into a Table via a Form (why
I dont know ?), but for instance, in the case of cascading combo's, should
the underlying Table Fields be formated as Combo's, as well as the Input Form
Controls, or should I leave the underlying Table Fields as Text Boxes, and
only format the Input Form Controls as Combo's ?
Any general advice in this area would be much appreciated.

 

[John Spencer]

Leave the fields in the table as text boxes.

Entering data through a form gives you much greater control over the data
entry, data validation, etc than if you enter directly into a table.

IF you are the only user then entering data directly into a table is not
that much of a problem. But I would never use the lookup capabilities of a
combobox in a form. This option can HIDE the real data that is being stored
in the field. It will show you "March" and store 3. Then when you attempt
to filter by "March" in a query, Access will generate an error since it
knows the field contains numbers, not text.



--
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
..

 

[Graham]

Thank you, I'm keen to avoid trashing my database again!! I had read about
avoiding Look-Up fields elsewhere. What about things such as Input Masks to
control data, again Table or Form, or Both ?

 

[John Spencer]

Input masks are good and bad. I tend to avoid them and use other methods
(VBA events) to ensure the data is entered in the correct format, but that
is my preference (and tables don't have VBA Events).


--
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
..

 

[Graham]

Hi, Both combo's are now working OK, but I've noticed that the underlying
fields in the Main Table are displaying the autonumber of the combo
selections, not the actual value ? Presumably I have to edit some of the
Properties of the Table ?, or is this done via the Form control ?, and if so,
What ?
Thanks again.

 

[John Spencer]

To see the actual values you need to build a query and link the main
table with the tables that have the values you want to see.

'====================================================
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
'====================================================