Blank field list?

[hbaker]

I'm brand new to Access, I have the 2010 version. I'm following a manual and it says to open the field list and choose from there. I have 2 tables created and just want to add a previously created field from one table on the next. When I pull up the field list it tells me that none are available.

I'm going a little batty not understanding and am, quite frankly, feeling pretty stupid right about now!

Please help me out if you can...

Thanks
Heather

 

[gemma-the-husky]

what are you trying to do - you do not want the same data in multiple tables. that isn't how it works.

To create a new field you just type in the field name - you can copy and paste the name. This is not the same thing as cloning the data though.

 

[hbaker]

Okay. I'll go back and just type the name in again on the second table.

I guess I'm trying to make the one table look up the values from the first table. Clear as mud, I'm sure!

Thank you for such a quick response.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

no - thats right

lets say one table has two columns

statecode
stateName

(US States)

In the main table, you just store the statecode value, and then automatically link the tables to get the statename whenever you need it.

Now in the main table, you could call the field Statecode, but you could call it anything you like eg CustomerState. The system will now what you are trying to do from the way you construct a query in due course.

This is all normal. Just make sure the datatype is consitent - don't make one a text, and the other a number. But generally longinteger numbers are the most effective datatypes for linked data fields of this nature


One other point is that in the table you CAN specify the field to be a loookup field which does all this automatically. But Our recommendation is to avoid this, as it can be confusing, as well as being not ideal for some technical reasons.

 

[hbaker]

Okay! Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it.