If I have a lookup field in Access with the first (bound) column hidden by setting field widths to 0";1", is there a way to see the real underlying value of the field without having to change the formatting of the lookup column?
I don't believe there is a way to access the available values without editing the lookup column.
With that said, I would point out the following:
Changing the formatting of the lookup column only impacts 2 things.
When you navigate the records from the table view you will see the new definition.
Any forms created in the future will now inherit the new definition.
In other words, changing the formatting of the lookup column doesn't impact any forms you may have already created based upon that field.
You can have a more descriptive description in your table that is completely separate from the definition in your forms.
If you want to know all of the values I suggest that you edit the drop down to show a concatenation of columns 1 and 2.
For example, lets say you had a value list of
1;foo;2;bar
The value list could be changed to
1;1-foo;2;2-bar
Then you know at a glance what the "hidden" field value represents. (The same could be done if the record source is a query.)
Turns out that there is a very simple way to do it. In the query, go to field properties and click on the "Lookup" tab, and choose textbox.
Related
So, I had lookup fields on my tables. I have recently learned that this is a bad idea. So, I'm trying to convert them to lookup fields in the forms that fill those tables.
The lookup list is drawn from another table with the individual values. On the table, I went into design view under the lookup tag and changed "combo box" to "text box." The fields that were previously lookup fields now display the "key" of the item that was displayed previously in the field.
The form still shows the correct lookup value but the associated table no longer does it instead shows the number associated with the value and not the value. What do I need to do to fix this.
I guess my question boils down to not knowing how to link a lookup field in a form to a text field in a table.
You don't need to change your forms, just update your tables - change lookup from combobox to text box, you did this correctly.
Existing forms should work as usual, with comboboxes, settings for those comboboxes were copied from table settings and not liked to table settings anymore.
In new forms you'll need to do the same manually: after placing the field to the form convert it to combobox then setup correct Row Source, Column Count and Column Widths properties of combobox.
I have a text box in a form which accepts a date.
I have to use that date in the calculated expression in a field of a table.
Initially I have tried to use this statement in the calculated expression.
[Forms]![Input data form]![Text38]
But it shows that "The expression cannot be used because refers to another table".
How to access the value of the text box?
I think I understand your question. You have a table and you want to use a calculated field in it that references a value in a form.
You will not be able to do it that way. The reason you are getting an error is because the form data only exists when the form is running. If you used that expression in the record source query of the form, you would be ok.
You have a couple of choices depending on what you are trying to do with the data. If you REALLY NEED a calculated field in your table, you can use a form to make an UPDATE to another field in your table; then it is static data and your calculated control can work.
Another option is to have a separate table to store the user input value, then use a VIEW (QUERY in Access terminology) to join the data together and compute the result. Depending on why you are doing it, this is typically the method you want to go with.
If this does not answer your question and you have something more specific, I will try to tailor the answer more.
I am trying to create a report putting a field called contact which has the name of a person. This name is linked directly to another table where I keep all the contacts.
For some strange reason, when I include this name (which in query view displays as the name of the contact), instead of the name appearing, the unique ID number is shown on my report.
As mentioned in the article cited in the above comment, you can use a Combo Box control on your report to do the lookup for you. To see how this can be done, create a new report based on the table containing the lookup field, then drag and drop that field onto the report. That will create a Combo Box control with properties that look something like this:
Row Source: SELECT [Clients].[ID], [Clients].[LastName] FROM Clients;
Bound Column: 1
Column Count: 2
Column Widths: 0";1"
You could use a similar Combo Box control on your actual report to display the client's name rather than their numeric ID value.
Another alternative would be to change the Control Source of the report's Text Box control to have it do a DLookUp() on the table. If the lookup field is named [client] then changing the Control Source of the Text Box to something like
=DLookUp("LastName","Clients","ID=" & [client])
would also work.
I wanted to add to the great answer by Gord:
When using a "web" database (started in Access 2007 I think), you cannot change a report's fields to ComboBox style, nor can you use DLookUp(). (web databases lack a ton of features)
The workaround for this, if you want to create a Web-Report that uses lookup fields, is to create a Web-Query first based on your Web-Table (all the Web-* stuff has a www planet icon over the logo, if you create a new Web-DB in Access 2007+ you'll see what I mean)
So, instead of Table -> Report, you'll have to do W-Table -> W-Query -> W-Report.
Then, the only thing you need to customize to get the data right is the W-Query. Start by trying to reproduce the look in the query to match what you want users to see in the report. Note that here in the query, lookups will work fine (instead of the unique ID's, you get field names like you want). However, this will not carry over to the report. To do that, you gotta get the actual text field name you want into the query:
You should already have one table in your query; start by adding the table that your first lookup field points to. For example, the table I want to print is called Stock_Boards, and it has a lookup field called PCBID_lookup that points to the table Stock_PCBs.
Since you're using lookup fields, there should already be a relationship line between the two tables when you add the second one. If there isn't, something has gone horribly wrong.
Now, see how that line connects two fields on the two different tables? For example, I've got my PCBID_lookup field on my Stock_Boards table, which connects to the ID field on my Stock_PCBs table. If I created a report from this now, PCBID_lookup would be a number, a number that correlates to the ID of a record on Stock_PCBs.
To fix it, I will add the name field I want to show up on the report. In my example, that happens to be a Part Number, rather than the ID. I add the PartNumber field from my Stock_PCBs table to the query, and remove the PCBID_lookup field of the Stock_Boards table from my query.
Since PartNumber is what I want to show up on my report, it effectively replaces the original field (PCBID_lookup)
Repeat for all lookup fields you want in your report.
I had 1 more: I removed the Status field of the Stock_Boards table (which was an ID/Lookup) and added the 'Status' field from the Status table (which was the actual text name)
When finished, your query should look exactly how you want the data to appear, without any special tricks or asking Access to do something unnatural. Save your query, and create a web-report from it. Done!
I am designing a form at work where I need to be able to set "Properties" for a large number of (accounting) "structures". I have a "Value" field where the user enters the value that property must take and then I have 1 column for every structure where the user must be able to check / uncheck each property for each structure. Also, I need to be able to suggest checkbox values (aka mapping of properties to structures) to the user so that he/she doesn't have to manually click all the checkboxes that will always need to be ticked. Finally, the number of properties (rows) and the number of structures (columns) should not be assumed to be fixed though I don't want the user to be able to modify it himself. I just want it so that a dev (probably me) doesn't have a hard time adding or removing structures.
For now I have used a local table where each structure is a column and I have hardcoded my properties (which is good). However, I am not sure that using a local table is good design. We normally avoid having forms and tables in the same Access DB to separate forms and data. Also, I'm wondering if there is an elegant solution that I am missing. There will be at least 10-15 structures and 11 properties, that would make 110 (11*10) checkboxes to handle so I cannot do it manually (i.e. create 110 checkboxes and check 110 values everytime...).
Here you can see what that part of the form looks like for now.
I know this will be a chattier question but I really need a design check on this so here are a few questions that I try to make as general and objective as possible:
In Access, how is it possible to create a matrix of controls where 1 column contains a fixed (but changeable by a dev) number of properties, a "value" field that can take text and then 10+ columns with Yes/No values ?
Is it possible to do it without a local table ?
VBA is perfectly admissible.
Thanks.
In Access, how is it possible to create a matrix of controls where 1 column contains a fixed (but changeable by a dev) number of properties, a "value" field that can take text and then 10+ columns with Yes/No values ?
I've never seen any VBA code that does what you describe. VB6 allowed the creation of "control arrays" to logically group controls (and work around some limitations on the number of controls on a form), but I've never seen that mentioned for VBA.
Is it possible to do it without a local table?
Is it possible? Maybe, since you can modify a form via code by opening it in Design View and using CreateControl() to add controls.
Is it practical? Probably not, because the "Access Specifications" section of Access Help mentions the following limit...
"Number of controls and sections that you can add over the lifetime of the form or report: 754"
..so it sounds like code that repeatedly modifies a form could very well break after a while.
My recommendation would be to create a temporary table, use it, and then discard it. If you're worried about front-end bloat then you could create the temporary table in a temporary .accdb file and then link to it.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems pretty easy to me.
Make each structure a record.
Then in another table, make each property a record with a 1-many relationship with the structure table. So, each structure will have many properties.
Then a form based on the structure with a sub-form based on it's properties.
Default property values can be set in the table structure.
And of course the tables can be linked from another DB.
In Access, how is it possible to create a matrix of controls where 1 column contains a fixed (but changeable by a dev) number of properties, a "value" field that can take text and then 10+ columns with Yes/No values?
I'm still not certain why you want multiple bits/booleans in a single column, but you might be able to utilize bit logic and long integer column. VBA does something like this with its constants. For instance, in a MsgBox, you make your type = vbCritical + vbYesNo. Its result is in an integer value that VBA interprets to make a Critcal MsgBox with only a Yes and a No button. The reason this works is because the value of each constant is so distinct that any summation with like constants results in a unique value that can be de-parsed. It's fairly elegant from a user perspective, but I'd hate to do the math on the back-end to make such a function work.
It might be better to maintain a separate table of available properties and/or property sets and build / maintain your property sheet that way. You could assign property sets as well as individual properties to particular controls. You could also specify in either table whether there is a default value for that property and/or what that value is.
It is also likely that you do not need that many bits. I'd be happy to narrow my answer to your situation if you could update your question with more detail regarding the nature of your bit need(s).
Is it possible to do it without a local table?
You might be able to create a DAO.Recordset dynamically in Access.
It might be better to adjust your properties table(s) (see above) to be a permanent table in one of your databases rather than re-populating the same data every time.
You could take more of a master/detail approach, combining your bit fields into a string description describing the boxes which are checked.
For example, if you have a structure named 'structure1', value 100, and 5 condition bits set, you could have one string column with text 'cond1, cond2, cond7, cond8, cond9' and then another button allowing them to modify that set of conditions for that single structure.
You'd have fewer checkboxes, anyways.
The only thing I can think of equivalent to 'a matrix of controls where 1 column contains a fixed (but changeable by a dev) number of properties' is an editable query result set.
You'll need a table for your structure -> default conditions set, if nothing else, but it doesn't have to be in the same db as the front end.
HTH
I have a combo box in Access and it contains a list of the field names from one of my tables. However, it is unordered and I don't know how to order it when field names is selected as its source. How can I order this alphabetically?
EDIT:
To clarify here are the settings I'm using in the properties menu.
I don't think there is a straightforward way to do this.
If the column names aren't going to change, then of course you could copy them to out to excel, sort them and add them back into the combobox as a value list (instead of field list).
If you want a solution that avoids hardcoding the fields, all I can think of is to change the combobox Row Source Type to Table/Query, and set it to a temporrary table. At time of loading the form then pre-populate the temporary table with the field names of the table, using VBA to get a sorted list of the field names of the table
Bit of a horrible hack, though.