Enter text info but return id to table

[Cheeky Charlie]

Hi all,

I'm sure this is a totally amateur question, sorry, but I'm a totally amateur access user, so I have limited options.

I am tryoing to create a very small call-logging database. I have a table for calls and a table for people who might make the calls. I need each call to have the person who made the call logged. My table of people who might make calls has a few fields:
ID (autonumber, primary key)
forename
surname
location

I would like to link the data via the ID, so that I can amend the callers without corrupting the referential integrity (for example change of name). But if I link the entry box on my form to the id column, then the drop down list is just the numbers (this is not very informative). I can write an expression with the query builder which concatenates the forename and surname and populates the list (and even orders it by surname) but then this returns that string to the table if I create a new record with it.

In sum:
I want to identify a key value by picking the attributes of that value, I want to see the attributes displayed on my form, but have the key stored in the table.

Sorry for verbose description, there's probably a lot of unnecessary gumph, and I've probably neglected to mention important things.

TIA
CC

 

[stopher]

Welcome to the forum

Create a query with the columns ID and Name (concatenated).

In your combo you need to set
- the row source to the query just created
- the column count to 2
- the bound column to 1
- column widths to something like 0cm,2cm

This will show the name but store the ID.

hth
Chris

 

[Cheeky Charlie]

This is perfect, Chris, thank you very much.