Filemaker Lookup equivalent

[tangentkid]

Hi all,

Sorry for such a Newbie question but....
I'm trying to find the equivalent of Filemaker's Lookup function within Access. To quote the Filemaker help page:

"A lookup copies data from another table into a field in the current table. After data is copied, it becomes part of the current table (and remains in the table from which it was copied). Data copied to the current table doesn't change automatically when the data in the other table changes.
To establish a connection between tables for a lookup, you create a relationship. Then you define a lookup to copy data from a field in the related table into a field in the current table."

The requirement for this is for an invoicing database where we need to copy a customer's invoice and shipping address into the invoice record so that, if the customer changes address, the old orders retain the actual address that was shipped to rather than be updated to whatever the customer's current address is. The same applies to many other things that fluctuate over time such as promotion discounts and list prices. When these change, looking back through old orders will give different prices than were actually invoiced. This must be a very common situation.

I've searched high and low on the web for an answer but so far have come up with nothing. A workaround might be to create the relationship then, when the customer ID (or product code etc) is changed, fire off a macro that copies the data from the related fields in the second table into the appropriate fields within the current table. If the Filemaker Lookup functionality is already present within Access it would be much neater to use that instead.

Any ideas?

Many thanks,
- Andy

 

[DJkarl]

Hi all,

Sorry for such a Newbie question but....
I'm trying to find the equivalent of Filemaker's Lookup function within Access. To quote the Filemaker help page:

"A lookup copies data from another table into a field in the current table. After data is copied, it becomes part of the current table (and remains in the table from which it was copied). Data copied to the current table doesn't change automatically when the data in the other table changes.
To establish a connection between tables for a lookup, you create a relationship. Then you define a lookup to copy data from a field in the related table into a field in the current table."

The requirement for this is for an invoicing database where we need to copy a customer's invoice and shipping address into the invoice record so that, if the customer changes address, the old orders retain the actual address that was shipped to rather than be updated to whatever the customer's current address is. The same applies to many other things that fluctuate over time such as promotion discounts and list prices. When these change, looking back through old orders will give different prices than were actually invoiced. This must be a very common situation.

I've searched high and low on the web for an answer but so far have come up with nothing. A workaround might be to create the relationship then, when the customer ID (or product code etc) is changed, fire off a macro that copies the data from the related fields in the second table into the appropriate fields within the current table. If the Filemaker Lookup functionality is already present within Access it would be much neater to use that instead.

Any ideas?

Many thanks,
- Andy

From MS Access help on update queries:

An update query makes global changes to a group of records in one or more tables. For example, you can raise prices by 10 percent for all dairy products, or you can raise salaries by 5 percent for the people within a certain job category. With an update query, you can change data in existing tables.

 

[wazz]

you might be looking for the DLookup function.