How do I get that drop down arrow to select proper values?

[9januerry9]

I have a field in a Contacts table called Referred By. I also have a separate table called Referred By which contains a numeric ID and a value for each Referrer. When I enter data into the Contacts table, I want the Referred By field to have a down arrow so that I can select the appropriate value. The Referred By table has 2 fields -- ID (AutoNumber) and Referred By (Long Text). There are currently 5 values in the Referred By Table.

I am new to Access. Can someone help? Thanks in advance.



Jerry S.

[June7]

Don't do data entry/edit directly with tables/queries. Use forms and a combobox on form.

[IncidentalProgrammer]

Absolutely what June7 said.

Within the form, to get the options from one table, and house the answers in another, you'll need to set the sources. Select your combobox in design view, and in Properties, go to the Data tab. "Control Source" determines where your entries from that combobox will be stored. "Row Source" determines where the options come from. If you have a lot of options (for example, states), use a table. If there will only ever be a small number of options (such as Yes, No, Pending), then you can type them into the Row Source box (previous example would format as Yes;No;Pending).

Just be sure that the "Row Source Type" field is set appropriately to read whichever method you use for your combobox choices. If you type into Row Source the options you want to have available, you'll need to change the type from "Table/Query" to "Value List".

[9januerry9]

Thanks for the help. I am trying to create a ComboBox. The table that I am drawing values from has two fields -- ID and Referred By. The ID is an Auto Number. That's not the field that I want to have appear in the ComboBox. But, it is the only field that appears as I make my way through the ComboBox Wizard. Any advice?

[IncidentalProgrammer]

Is the ID the key field in the table? If so, the combo box should give you the option of hiding the key. If not, under the Data tab in the Property Sheet for the combobox, change the Bound Column to 2.

[June7]

Review: http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/f...combobox3.html