Life beyond Lookups

M

Milind

A newbie. No offence intended. It has being recommended not to use Lookups in
fields. Is it to be avoided totally? What comes in its place? Could you
recommend any book (or sites) which uses this strategy and guides to proper
learning? Thanks
 
A

Arvin Meyer [MVP]

Since I'm the one that wrote the original article:

http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm

let me reiterate that it's not lookups that are to be avoided, it's using
lookup fields in tables. Tables are meant as storage containers for data.
They are normally not to be used for viewing or entering data. Use a form
for that. Even a datasheet form that looks like a table is OK because you
can run code in it and use it to enforce business rules. That cannot be done
very well in an Access table, nor is it done completely in any other
database system tables.

Use a query based on the table as an underlying datasource for your form.
Use combo boxes with either queries or select statements for lookups in your
forms.
 
R

Rick Brandt

Milind said:
A newbie. No offence intended. It has being recommended not to use
Lookups in fields. Is it to be avoided totally? What comes in its
place? Could you recommend any book (or sites) which uses this
strategy and guides to proper learning? Thanks
Click to expand...

It is only not recommended to be used IN TABLES and since you should never
directly interact with tables anyway then it is nothing to give up. Lookups
on forms using ComboBoxes and ListBoxes are fine and are recommended.
 
Top