Comboboxes versus Checkboxes

[AirCounsel]

I've created an Access database to manager the activities of a school. I have a "contacts" table where I enter general information about all contacts and a "workers" table linked to the contacts table, containing specific information about workers, such as availability, abilities, etc. I've set up a form for the contacts, containing a subform linked to the workers table, which I only make visible if a checkbox "worker" is checked. What I want to do is show the days each worker is available to work on the subform. The only way I know how to do this is by adding a column for each day of the week to the workers table, with boolean yes/no type and then show the values of each columns with a yes on the form. I think that would do the trick, but I have a feeling that a different method, perhaps using a combobox would be better. The form will be used not only to show the data, but also to update the related tables. Any thoughts? I so, can you provide enough details so a newbie like me can follow? Thanks!

 

[PNGBill]

If you want the five or seven "boxes" to just indicate if a person works on respective day then you would use a Check Box or Text Box.

A Combo Box gives you the ability to click and select an option.
This would be suitable if you wanted to change the status of a day.

Check Boxes have very limited use compared to combo boxes.

See this link on why not to use Yes/No http://allenbrowne.com/casu-23.html

 

[AirCounsel]

PNGBill,

Great suggestion! The link you provided led me to a tutorial that explains exactly what I'm trying to do. Thanks!

 

[Pat Hartman]

Even though it is highly unlikely that the number of days in a week will ever change, it is still a violation of first normal form to store all seven days as columns in a table. The better solution is to create a second table and in this table will be one row per person for each day thay can work so Sally can work M and T and so has 2 records. Joe can work M, W, F and so has 3 records. You would use a subform to display the days available. Add a row to add another day, delete a row to delete a day.

 

[AirCounsel]

Pat, I clicked on the link provided by PNGBill and followed those instructions to normalize the database. However, in the original design I had a field in my "workers" table named "Day Availability" and used the lookup wizard to get the days of the week from a separate table. Now, I have a third table named WorkersDays which combined the tables "Workers" and "Days of the Week.' I removed the "Day Availability" field from the "Workers" table and made sure the relationships were set up as instructed. However, I'm having trouble showing this stuff on a form and subform using a combobox as suggested. I'd appreciate any detailed help you can provide. Here's how the tables were set up:

Workers:
WorkerID: AutoNumber
Education: Text
Other: Text

Days of the Week:
DayID: AutoNumber
Day: Text

WorkersDays:
WorkerDayID: AutoNumber
WorkerID: Number
DayID: Number

Then I set the one-to-many relationship between Workers and WorkerDays
And another one-to-many relationship between Days of the Week and WorkersDays

 

[PNGBill]

Day can not be a field name - it is a reserved word.
Google Hungarian Naming Convention

The list of Reserved Words is "as long as a pce of string".
Best way to avoid using same is to use double or triple names
eg WorkDay rather then Day
TeacherName, ClassRoomNumber, tblWorkers, EducationDescrip, WorkersOther, DaysOfTheWeek