Thanks for that

will change the way it works
regards

Mike
"John Vinson" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 14:45:07 -0000, "Mike"
wrote:

I'm trying to populate fields in one table with data from another

say I have a table with employees in as follows

employeeID(primary key)
name
charge rate
trade

and say a table called labour

LabourID(primary key)
job record
name (selected on a lookup to the employee table)
charge rate (populated data from employee table once name had been
picked)
trade (populated data from employee table once name had been
picked)

You're missing the point of how relational databases work.

They're based on the "Grandmother's Pantry Principle" - "a place - ONE
place! - for everything, everything in its place".

The Labour table should contain the EmployeeID as a link to the
Employee table - AND NOTHING ELSE from the Employee table. Storing the
name, the charge rate, or the trade redundantly is neither necessary
nor beneficial.

If (as it appears likely) you're trying to enter data directly into
the Labour table datasheet - don't. Table datasheets are of VERY
limited value for anything other than design and debugging. Instead,
create a Form based on Employees, with a Subform based on the virtuous
and loyal labour of the horribly exploited workers... oops, my
politics are showing...

John W. Vinson[MVP]