"The dreaded lookup field"

So when is it OK to use one? Must I banish combo boxes to outer darkness?

A misunderstanding, I think. Combo boxes are very good and useful and are
not to be banned. Plus they greatly facilitate the elimination of people
entering bad data.

The "lookup" field issue relates to the property that you can set for a
field in the table itself. Don't do that! Leads to problem when you look at
data that it appears to be the lookup value but instead is the real value;
people forget that and wonder why their queries don't work when they try to
find records where that field's value is the looked-up value and not the
real value.
--

Ken Snell
MS ACCESS MVP

"Sue" wrote in message
...
So when is it OK to use one? Must I banish combo boxes to outer darkness?

Thanks for clarifying.


"Ken Snell (MVP)" wrote in message
...
A misunderstanding, I think. Combo boxes are very good and useful and are
not to be banned. Plus they greatly facilitate the elimination of people
entering bad data.

The "lookup" field issue relates to the property that you can set for a
field in the table itself. Don't do that! Leads to problem when you look
at data that it appears to be the lookup value but instead is the real
value; people forget that and wonder why their queries don't work when
they try to find records where that field's value is the looked-up value
and not the real value.
--

Ken Snell
MS ACCESS MVP

"Sue" wrote in message
...
So when is it OK to use one? Must I banish combo boxes to outer darkness?

On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:54:28 -0400, "Ken Snell \(MVP\)"
wrote:

A misunderstanding, I think. Combo boxes are very good and useful and are
not to be banned. Plus they greatly facilitate the elimination of people
entering bad data.

Well... they don't eliminate the *people*. You have to call the HR department
(or Cousin Luigi) to do that!

g, d & r

John W. Vinson [MVP]

"John W. Vinson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:54:28 -0400, "Ken Snell \(MVP\)"
wrote:

A misunderstanding, I think. Combo boxes are very good and useful and are
not to be banned. Plus they greatly facilitate the elimination of people
entering bad data.

Well... they don't eliminate the *people*. You have to call the HR
department
(or Cousin Luigi) to do that!


Yep, you're right... a bit of "wishful thinking" crept into my reply.....
--

Ken Snell
MS ACCESS MVP

hmm, do you think MS might add that option to the next version of Access?
i'd buy it in a heartbeat! bg


"Ken Snell (MVP)" wrote in message
...
"John W. Vinson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:54:28 -0400, "Ken Snell \(MVP\)"
wrote:

A misunderstanding, I think. Combo boxes are very good and useful and
are
not to be banned. Plus they greatly facilitate the elimination of people
entering bad data.

Well... they don't eliminate the *people*. You have to call the HR
department
(or Cousin Luigi) to do that!


Yep, you're right... a bit of "wishful thinking" crept into my reply.....
--

Ken Snell
MS ACCESS MVP

"tina" wrote in message
...
hmm, do you think MS might add that option to the next version of Access?
i'd buy it in a heartbeat! bg

I don't think it's on the "top 100" list right now..... s

--

Ken Snell
MS ACCESS MVP

"tina" wrote in message:
...

hmm, do you think MS might add that option to the next version of Access?
i'd buy it in a heartbeat! bg

It's in the specs at the moment.....



I'm kidding, just kidding!!
:-)

--
Jeff Conrad - Access Junkie - MVP Alumni
Software Development Engineer in Test
XAS Services
Microsoft Corporation

Co-author - Microsoft Office Access 2007 Inside Out
Presenter - Microsoft Access 2007 Essentials
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie.html
Access 2007 Info: http://www.AccessJunkie.com

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On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:21:19 -0400, "Ken Snell \(MVP\)"
wrote:

"tina" wrote in message
...
hmm, do you think MS might add that option to the next version of Access?
i'd buy it in a heartbeat! bg

I don't think it's on the "top 100" list right now..... s

I think it's been on request since before there was a Microsoft... remember
the XOI instruction? Execute Operator Immediate...

John W. Vinson [MVP]

"tina" wrote in message
...
hmm, do you think MS might add that option to the next version of Access?
i'd buy it in a heartbeat! bg

They had it in Alpha testing but it eliminated the entire team that was
doing the testing.
Now it's tough for MS to find people willing to work on it any further.

Tom Lake