[AccessD] Lookup Fields in Table Design

And that is exactly why I jumped into the thread.  There are a lot of
'myths' about Access.  Most of them are perpetuated by personal preferences,
rather then actual issues.  In your case, of a value list, there is NO
drawback, because the value list would just import or link without a hitch,
and server side db's would just ignore them if imported.  However, you are a
good example of why I posted what I did, because you were under the
impression that it was wrong to use them.  That was just mis-information.

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John Bartow
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 11:58 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Lookup Fields in Table Design


Dittos - exactly my point too. And I want to thank everyone who helped out
in the discussion - "nay-sayers" and "sayers" alike! Without a quality
discussion between people who disagree on the matter I would have learned
very little and the archives would have just been cluttered up with flames.

It was an eye opener for me since I had been the one who had assumed there
was something terribly wrong with using the lookup property. My assumption
was not even based on what was eventually brought as the problem. I had
assumed the whole buggaboo was about using delimited lists as the default
lookup.

The one time I did use the lookup property it seemed to be the only
reasonable way to handle the situation (it was specified that the users were
to be given free reign to the database window). It bugged me that I had used
it since so many people had recommended against it. Now I feel totally
justified about doing it the way I did. I used defined queries based on the
normalized relationships that existed in the database as the default lookup
property. This is what should have been used even if the defaults were not
set up. The only difference lies in the fact that it saves steps when adding
controls to forms and - the reason I did it - it uses the correct lookup
values displayed in the data sheets so some user isn't going to come along
and try and type auto numbers in and miss by one or two digits. If anyone
ever changes the structure they should certainly check to make sure the
queries all work properly so it shouldn't even cause problems for some of
the more extreme cases that were brought up.

So William and Andy - to make up for your inconvenience I'll buy you a mug
or two when you stop in to Winneconne someday :o)

John

I just hope that people starting out in Access read the thread, and realize
that not everything that is 'recommended' about Access is based on fact.
That their goal in their development career should be to learn everything
that they can with the development tool of their choice, and not just take
things at face value.

Drew


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