combine text fields

[joemills62]

I have a data entry form called clients.



I have text fields First Name, Surname, Contact Name

I want the contact name fields to be a combination of the first name & surname field.

I have code in afterupdate to say = me.first name & " " & me.surname

when the form has been completed it add the data, but there is no data in the contact name field

any help on this matter

should i also have a save button on the form !!

[alansidman]

You placed the formula in the afterupdate for the control contact name? Is this correct?

Alan

[joemills62]

Yes, its in the Afterupdate section

[alansidman]

Are you able to post your db with some sample data? Make sure to remove any proprietary information and do a compact and repair before posting it.

Alan

[rpeare]

in the onexit property of the surname field you could have


me.ContactName = me.firstname & " " & me.surname

But let me just say this. There's really no reason to do this. You can perform this concantentation of fields on any form, report or anything else and be able to search for a specific person or do anything else as though it were a field in your table. You're basically storing a bunch of data for no reason by making it an actual field in your database.

[joemills62]

I have tried this,

me.ContactName = me.firstname & " " & me.surname

On After update, and on exit

And yet it still does not fill in the contact name field

i have a button on a menu to add data, this opens a contact details form,

i also have a save button on the form.

The reason i want this field updated with the first name and surname is that there will be relation to it, from other data tables using the contact name

[rpeare]

ooooh that is a really, really, really bad idea to link on the contact name. You should be using a unique key field (autonumber) and definitely NOT the contact name. Let's assume for the sake of argument you type in a person's name incorrectly. Then you create some records in your other tables that are using the incorrect person's name. If you then go back and correct the name on your contacts table you will have orphaned all of the data on the other tables. I would very, very, very strongly recommend you add a unique key field to your contacts table and use that field as your link.