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One-to-many Forms

These are sometimes called master-detail forms. The basic idea is that one table is the parent or master table. The other is the child or detail. The parent is the record source for a main form in which a subform is embedded with the child table as the record source. There are several ways to create one-to-many forms. First let's have a look at what one looks like. It's a simple example showing a work order with labor tickets applied.

The main form uses the work_orders table as the record source. The subform uses the labor table. There is a foreign key, wono, in the labor table which refers to the primary key, wono, in the work_orders table. Here is what the relationship look like.

We'll create this the manual way. Once we know what is going on we'll look at how to speed the process up with the Form Wizard.

There are three basic steps.

  1. Create the subform

  2. Create the main form

  3. Add the subform to the main form

1. Create the subform

Use the Form Wizard to create a form just as for a simple data entry form. But select a tabular or dataheet format. Remove extraneous controls, labels, etc. Use the child table as the record source. When done you should have something that looks like the one below (I did mine in tabular format).

Save it. The convention for subform name prefixes is sfrm. Some people use frmsub.

2. Create the Main Form

Create the main, or master, form using a columnar format and the parent table as the record source.

3. Add the Subform to the Main Form

Drag and drop the subform on the the main form. Voila. You now have a master-detail form.

On the next page we'll take a look at the property sheet.

Continue to page 3 - one to many forms cont'd ...


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