Lookup table is empty

[Kim]

I'm building a database to track presenters and breakout sessions for a
state-wide conference. There will be hundreds of breakout sessions with one
or more presenters for each session and each presenter could also be
presenting one or more breakout sessions. So far I have tblSessions (with
SessionID as the primary key) and tblPresenters (with PresenterID as the
primary key). I'm trying to create a tblSessionDetails to tie the two
together so I can eventually create a subform within my session form to
assign presenters to each session. When I create the tblSessionDetails, I
can't get any data to come up in the table. When I look at the
relationships, there's a one to many relationship between tblSessions and
tblSessionDetails, a one to many relationship between tblPresenters and
tblSessionDetails, and also a one to may relationship between tblPresenters
and tblSessions. What am I missing to get the data to show up in the
tblSession Details?

 

[John Spencer]

The data must be entered into tblSessionDetails. It doesn't appear magically.

Or am I completely misunderstanding what you are asking?

Also, there should not be a direct relationship between tblSessions and
tblPresenters.

John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County

I'm building a database to track presenters and breakout sessions for a
state-wide conference. There will be hundreds of breakout sessions with one
or more presenters for each session and each presenter could also be
presenting one or more breakout sessions.

So far I have tblSessions (with

SessionID as the primary key) and tblPresenters (with PresenterID as the
primary key). I'm trying to create a tblSessionDetails to tie the two
together so I can eventually create a subform within my session form to
assign presenters to each session.

When I create the tblSessionDetails, I

can't get any data to come up in the table.

When I look at the

 

[Ken Sheridan]

The fact that you have a relationship between tblPresenters and tblSessions
rings alarm bells. As John has pointed out there should be no direct
relationship between the two. The fact that there is one suggests that at
least one of the two tables includes a foreign key column referencing the
primary key of the other, i.e. there is PresenterID column in tblSessions
and/or a SessionID column in tblPresenters. There should be neither.

There is a relationship type between tblPresenters and tblSessions, but it’s
a many-to-many one, and it is this relationship type which tblSessionDetails
models by resolving the conceptual many-to-many relationship into two actual
one-to-many relationships. So tblSessionDetails should have two foreign key
columns SessionID and PresenterID, which in combination form the primary key
of the table, or at least a candidate key. There may be other columns in the
table which represent other attributes of each presenter's involvement in the
session, e.g. the date and time (one column) at which they appear. You then
base a subform on this table and embed it in your sessions form, linking the
parent form and subform on SessionID. In the subform you'd have a combo box
bound to the PresenterID column set up along these lines:

ControlSource: PresenterID

RowSource: SELECT PresenterID, FirstName & " " & LastName FROM
tblPresenters ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;

BoundColum: 1
ColumnCount: 2
ColumnWidths 0cm;8cm

If your units of measurement are imperial rather than metric Access will
automatically convert the last one. The important thing is that the first
dimension is zero to hide the first column and that the second is at least as
wide as the combo box.

You'd also have controls in the subform bound to any other columns in the
table such as the date/time column I postulated above. To insert a row into
the table you select a presenter from the combo box's list and enter data in
any other controls in the subform.

Ken Sheridan
Stafford, England