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Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times

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On 2023-09-16 08:39:46 +0000, Martin Τrautmann said:
> On Sat, 16 Sep 2023 11:06:23 +1200, Helpful Harry wrote:
>> On 2023-09-15 08:44:37 +0000, Martin Τrautmann said:
>>> 
>>> I guess I did not understand the usefullness of secondary fields yet.
>> 
>> The secondary field in the value list definition means the City
>> drop-down menu could show both the city and the state.
>> 
>> For example, if the user enter the state as California, then the city
>> drop-down menu would display:
>> Azusa California
>> Bakersfield California
>> Baldwin Park California
>> etc.
> 
> No, not if you would show the second field only, which is one of the
> options.

True, which is occasionally handy if you need to group the values 
differently to normal alphabetically. For example, you could have all 
the US cities in the drop-down menu, but have them grouped 
alphabetically by state (i.e. all the California cities would be higher 
up the list than all the Florida cities).

Although, not displaying that second field can make it confusing for 
users since they might be looking for a city starting with D and it 
isn't near the top. Without actually scrolling down to see there are 
other sub-sorted lists, they won't know it is there. Whereas with the 
State also displayed, they know to look further down for the State's 
cities they want.



>> For this database example it is basically pointless since they will all
>> be the same state anyway, but displaying such a combined list can
>> sometimes be useful.
> 
> It's probably for additional info, but selecting one of those will not
> take the second value, but the first value, even if the first value is
> hidden.

It's really only a cosmetic and user-friendly option, especially if, as 
above, you want to group the values non-alphabetically for some reason..



>> I think part of the weirdness you were seeing is possibly also due to
>> this, unless I'm reading it wrong:
> 
> The weirdness is that there are multiple repetitions of the same values,
> depending on how many records do contain this value, but not a 1:1
> match. I'd have to run some checks, but it's about the square root of
> records - so for 10 records of California, the dropdown list would offer
> 
>     Azusa
>     Azusa
>     Azusa
>     Bakersfield
>     Bakersfield
>     Bakersfield
>     ...

I haven't tested it, but if the value list was just getting values 
directly from the field, you'd probably get one entry from each 
separate People table records.

But since the value list is getting it's values via a relationship link 
to the field, you'll get an increasing number of values as each 
spearate People table record finds more and more related records as new 
records are added.



>> If you get the value list from the People table, the drop-down list can
>> only show values that have previously been entered (again something
>> that is sometimes handy), but which would prove "difficult" if there
>> are no existing records since the list would be blank.
> 
> That had been the purpose here.

That makes it difficult for users to enter a new City because it 
doesn't have a previous existing record - value lists from fields can't 
be edited like normal static lists can.


Helpful Harry  :o)

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[FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2023-09-12 14:59 +0200
  Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2023-09-15 18:02 +1200
    Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2023-09-15 10:44 +0200
      Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2023-09-16 11:06 +1200
        Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2023-09-16 10:39 +0200
          Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2023-09-17 09:58 +1200
            Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2023-09-17 09:16 +0200
              Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2023-09-18 10:28 +1200
    Re: [FMP11] value lists and secondary fields - shows secondary value multiple times Martin Τrautmann <t-usenet@gmx.net> - 2023-09-15 11:06 +0200

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