Trying to do a multple-layer select in a form

[adreasler]

Say for example I have the following table to hold category information:

CategoryNo                Description
[Long Int, Key Field]     [Text]
00 00 00                  (Unknown/Undefined)
01 00 00                  Pet Food
01 01 00                  Dog Food
01 01 01                  Dry Dog Food
01 01 02                  Moist Dog Food
01 02 00                  Fish Food
01 02 01                  Fish Flakes, Goldfish
02 00 00                  Animal
02 01 00                  Dog
02 01 01                  Beagle
02 01 02                  Terrier
02 02 00                  Cat
02 02 01                  Calico
02 03 00                  Fish
02 03 01                  Goldfish

I already have a query that adds the metadata to break the long int down into 'Main,' 'Sub,' and 'Sub-Sub' fields (So that 'Terrier' has the metadata of Main=2, Sub=1, SubSub=2) and flags for 'IsMain', 'IsSub', and 'IsSubSub' set up.

What I would like to do is have a form where I can select from a drop-down list from the Main category, then from another drop-down list select the Sub category from within the Main, and then the Sub-Sub category from within the Sub.

I can get the Main category drop-down list to work right, and it provides the integer I can use to 'rebuild' that part of the category number for searching the item list for matching categories. However, I cannot get the Sub or Sub-Sub dropdowns to work properly, they always show ALL items of that level, not filtering to just the sub categories that fall under the selected main category.

How can I set this up so it will work? It is aggravating and unproductive to have to scroll past all the pet food or all the fish when I need to select a calico cat for the collection list.

[pbaldy]

Is this what you're looking for?

Baldy-Cascading Combos

[adreasler]

Is this what you're looking for?

Baldy-Cascading Combos

That's Exactly what I needed, thank you so much.

Before I demonstrate my ignorance further here, I'm going to check out a bit more of your site, it'll probably save this forum from a number of other 'newbie' questions from me.

[pbaldy]

Happy to help, and welcome to the site by the way!

[adreasler]

Thanks. I'd say it's obvious I don't have much training with Access, and I'm trying to improve the 'Project Tracking/Bill of Materials' database I had previously set up. Most of it is working well, I can put parts into Subassemblies, Tie Subassemblies into Assemblies, add Assemblies to Projects, and then get a BOM report for a project, a Cost Breakdown of a project by Assemblies, and Purchase order requests by vendor, but my initial way of identifying and sorting the parts is not 'human friendly' after the list of parts starts to grow.

It'll be a while before I get the new DB anywhere close to ready, but you've been a big help on the initial hurdle, and I can move on to filtering the parts list to only show the category selected.

As to your tag line, I am feeling a sense of irony as this project has me feeling like the poor schlub Atlas handed the Globe off to, claiming he'd "be right back." (If I remember the legend correctly, the 'poor schlub' was Hercules/Herakles, who managed to trick Atlas into taking the Globe back, but I'm feeling more of the initial 'What did I just get myself into' panic right now.)