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#1
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"Evils of Lookup FIelds"?
SO I've read a little thing that warns against using the
LOOKUP feature when designing tables. Apparently its not good to assign values to a field based on values in another table; better to just join the tables in a query and get your values that way. But what about using the VALUE LIST lookup option when designing a table? This does not reference another table, but you just type in the list of values from which you want the user to select. For example, I might want to limit data for a Status field to "Approved," "Pending." and "Denied." SO rather than creating a separate table for these 3 entries, I just type them in to the table design, via the LOOKUP feature. Any harm in that? (Thanks!) |
#2
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el zorro wrote:
SO I've read a little thing that warns against using the LOOKUP feature when designing tables. Apparently its not good to assign values to a field based on values in another table; better to just join the tables in a query and get your values that way. But what about using the VALUE LIST lookup option when designing a table? This does not reference another table, but you just type in the list of values from which you want the user to select. For example, I might want to limit data for a Status field to "Approved," "Pending." and "Denied." SO rather than creating a separate table for these 3 entries, I just type them in to the table design, via the LOOKUP feature. Any harm in that? I don't think so. It's just that it is quite rare to have a list of values that will *never* change or be added to. If you do then fine, but you have quite a bit of work to do if you want to add 'Revoked' for example, later on. -- Joan Wild Microsoft Access MVP |
#3
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On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:57:27 -0800, "el zorro"
wrote: SO I've read a little thing that warns against using the LOOKUP feature when designing tables. Apparently its not good to assign values to a field based on values in another table; better to just join the tables in a query and get your values that way. But what about using the VALUE LIST lookup option when designing a table? This does not reference another table, but you just type in the list of values from which you want the user to select. For example, I might want to limit data for a Status field to "Approved," "Pending." and "Denied." SO rather than creating a separate table for these 3 entries, I just type them in to the table design, via the LOOKUP feature. Any harm in that? (Thanks!) If you reread the rant against Lookup Fields you'll see that it is NOT objecting to using combo boxes (whether table based or list-of-values) for entering data. It's perfectly routine to do so, and good practice... ON FORMS, which is where data entry should be done. In my opinion the worst disadvantage of Lookup Fields is that it keeps people tied to using table datasheets for data entry, rather than moving to Forms. Forms are much more capable and controllable than table datasheets - and you can freely use combo boxes on Forms. John W. Vinson[MVP] Join the online Access Chats Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps |
#4
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I don't like value lists either. Opinions vary, but it is just as easy to
store these values in a table. Then you can give your users a form in which they can maintain their own dropdown lists. If they do not have this option, they must come to me as the programmer to add it, because the information is stored in the APPLICATION rather than in the DATABASE. Personally, I think (and EF Codd agrees) that all data should be stored in the database and not in the application. -- --Roger Carlson Access Database Samples: www.rogersaccesslibrary.com Want answers to your Access questions in your Email? Free subscription: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/...UBED1=ACCESS-L "el zorro" wrote in message ... SO I've read a little thing that warns against using the LOOKUP feature when designing tables. Apparently its not good to assign values to a field based on values in another table; better to just join the tables in a query and get your values that way. But what about using the VALUE LIST lookup option when designing a table? This does not reference another table, but you just type in the list of values from which you want the user to select. For example, I might want to limit data for a Status field to "Approved," "Pending." and "Denied." SO rather than creating a separate table for these 3 entries, I just type them in to the table design, via the LOOKUP feature. Any harm in that? (Thanks!) |
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