What to use instead of lookup fields

  • Thread starter Thread starter Russell
  • Start date Start date
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Russell

I was just reading the Access MVP site. One of the things
it said you should avoid in Access is using lookup fields.
I was wondering what I should be using instead.
 
Russell said:
I was just reading the Access MVP site. One of the things
it said you should avoid in Access is using lookup fields.
I was wondering what I should be using instead.
Click to expand...

Use a query, adding both tables. For form combo/list boxes you can also use
a select statement. The admonition is partly because users should not be
looking in tables anyway. Very few database systems, and even fewer good
database administrators allow this.

In Access, since there are no Triggers, it is important to use forms for all
data entry so that good validation can be carried out. You cannot run code
from tables, nor can you run any expressions which have user definined code.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
So the best way to do it is to have say the branch name in
a separate table. Then on the form for the main table
change the text box for the branch name to a combo box and
put a select in the Control Source?
 
So the best way to do it is to have say the branch name in
a separate table. Then on the form for the main table
change the text box for the branch name to a combo box and
put a select in the Control Source?
Click to expand...

Sure, the above works well, and is one good solution. In fact, you can use
the wizard to build the combo box, and it is really easy when you do this.

The above is certainly one of the most common ways to "look up" data from
another table.

Another good solution as mentioned is to simply use a query, and drop in the
3 or 4 other tables that you need to fetch the values from...
 
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