[AccessD] Lookup Fields in Table Design

DWUTKA at marlow.com DWUTKA at marlow.com
Mon Mar 29 13:31:13 CST 2004


What's my opinion?

The 'nay-sayers' have not shown a good valid reason why it is 'wrong' to use
them.  All evidence points to the fact that they do their job, and if you
know what you are doing, then use them if you want.  I have been reading all
of the posts on this thread, have ya'all actually posted a valid 'doomsday'
catch all, that I missed?

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Charlotte
Foust
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 1:22 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Lookup Fields in Table Design


NOT!  That's your opinion, Drew.  Not sacred writ.  Try not to get them
confused. <g>

Charlotte Foust

-----Original Message-----
From: DWUTKA at marlow.com [mailto:DWUTKA at marlow.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 10:54 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [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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