Table - drop down box problems in table and querie

[eonelson]

I have a db that had to be designed taking into consideration a previous db. Merging went well. On several of the forms that feed the tables there are drop down boxes for entry consistency. Those drop down boxes have two columns. Ex is Counties field: Column 1 = County Name Column 2 = Numerical Designation.

On the form the dropdown shows the name for selection.

On the table it is a different story. On the portion of the table that came from the old db the field shows the Name. On the portion of the table that pertains to data entered since the new db, only the number shows. This also means it won't let me search by county name - only by number which doesn't work.

I have tried to compare properties for the old and new database for the forms, the tables, etc. and can't find a discrepancy.

1. How can I get the field in the table to show only the name and not the number?
2. Will that solve my search problem?

Oh, does it make a difference that there isn't any sort of pk or fk in the lookup table?

Thanks.

p.s. I am learning as I am going - so really complicated answers are difficult for me

 

[neileg]

The data for the drop down should be stored in a table. It would be logical for the numerical value to be the primary key. You should store the PK in the main table, not the text value.

When you want to search by county name, you can do one of two things. Either you join the two tables in a query and search the name, or you get the user to pick the name, but you use the number to search.