Add a Lookup Field

Objectives:

• Understand lookup fields
• Add a lookup field to your view and the underlying table
• Update records in your table to add data from the lookup field

Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes

Skill level: Beginner

You may find that some data in your application needs to be entered again and again. For example, the Fremont Book Club meets at one of three places: the pub, the coffee shop, or the downtown library. Rather than typing this data in for each meeting, and running the risk of mispelling it, you can create a lookup field. The lookup field provides you with a drop-down list of possible values to choose from.

* To add a lookup field to your table, follow these steps:

1. Edit the default.view file in the Books folder in the Designer, if you're not already.
2. Select the view's data region.
3. Choose Insert > New Field, then click the Custom Fields tab. Enter the following data to create a new field:
• Field Name: Location.
• Data Type: Text.
• Caption: Location.
4. Click the Options button.
5. Enter these names on separate lines in the Options dialog:
   • Pub
   • Coffee Shop
   • Downtown Library
6. Click Ok to close the Options dialog.
7. Click Finish.

If you look at the File Directory, you may notice that a new folder has been added to your application, the Lookups folder. Within this folder is a data table named Location, containing the data you entered above. A lookup field actually looks up data that is stored in another table in your application. To add a new location, you would insert a new record in the Location table.

Assign locations
Next we need to assign a location for each meeting that exists on the schedule.

* Follow these steps to modify the data in the Books table: