Is there any Secondary field?

[Guest]

I was told:
"You are most likely seeing the primary field of the record you are
"looking-up". In there a secondary field too? If so, where can I find the
description? Online help is of no use. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Hi

When I sent that post it was in answer to your question regarding lookup
fields in your table.

To understand it you need to understand the very basic way in which access
is used to run relational data.

In a table you store data like this
Table name = tblClients
ClientID
Client1stName
ClientSurname
ClientDateOfBirth
ClientAddress
etc
etc
etc

You need to be able to tell (differentiate) between this record and any
other records you may have. As an example you may have 2 people who have the
same name (John Smith) or you may even have two people with the same name at
the same address (farther and son / John Smith). So to do this you need to
give each record a unique reference. Most people use an ID field although in
some cases this could be different like for cars you could use the
registration plate number.

But the main thing is that you "must" have at least one "unique" field in
the record to tell it from all the others.

So in your table name = tblClients you could use these formats
ClientID = Autonumber (this is the primary field of the record)
Client1stName = Text
ClientSurname = Text
ClientDateOfBirth = Date
ClientAddress = Text

Don't forget not to put in the "age" of the person. You should use the date
of birth. The reason for this is the DoB will not change but the age does -
so next year (if you put in the age) it would be wrong.

Back to the tables

Access is referential - it can "refer" one table to another. So in most case
you will add in another field (the foreign field) and use this to "connect"
the tables.

So you could create another table called tblTasks
TaskID = Autonumber
ClientID = Number (this is the foreign field)
TaskDiscrition = Text
TaskDate = Date
etc
etc

Now you can use the relationship wizard to create a relationship between
tblClients and tblTasks. You will then be able to do many things with access
You could have a main form with details of each client and a subform showing
all the task that client has
You can create reports that calculate various things about the tasks and
which client has done what and how many times
You can use a query to provide calculated controls for forms with details of
both clients and tasks.
etc
etc
etc

In you original question you were using a lookup field in a table. Don't do
this. Use a form (combo or list) and this will provide the view that you are
looking for.

The form could be based on tblClients
The Combo could use tblTasks as it's source.

BUT you will need to have at the Primary field in a column and then the
other details you need in the other(s). You can hide the primary field if
you want using column width 0cm;


Hope this helps

Sorry if some of the words in English are not correct is so then someone
else will add to the thread and let you know

 

[Guest]

Hi again

I have found this which gives you a good place to start with access.

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC061183261033

Have a look at it and follow the leason plan and i think it will be of some
use to give the basic way that you can use access.

Hope this helps

Good luck