Combo Box help

[Traceyann1964]

Hi I want to have a combo box autopopulate 6 columns. I have a table called "vehicles" I want to select a particular vehicle registration number and it autopopulate 5 more fields. However, 2 of the fields in the table are based on a look up value in the table. ie The fields Vehicle Make and Vehicle Model allow the user to choose from a dropdown box so they can select from a list instead of typing in every time eg" Ford" and " Mondeo"


The combo box results are showing these 2 fields as a number? Not sure why, can anyone help?

[John_G]

You have tripped over one of the major issues with lookup fields in tables. The table itself does not store the lookup values, it stores the lookup index, which makes that field useless in many cases, including combo boxes (among others).

My advice is to get rid of those lookup fields, and convert them to plain integer containing a FK's to lookup tables. Then create separate lookup tables (though one could be used, with two fields), and use queries when you need to join the two. IMO, lookup fields are an abomination which violate the rules of referential databases.

[Traceyann1964]

Ahh Thank you. I understand that now