Auto Populate fields in MS Access Form

Question

Is there a way to automatically populate fields in an MS Access form? Lets say the user makes a selection from a specific combo box on the form, is there something that can be done to automatically select the other fields on the form based on the PK?

Id like to add that the fields to auto populate would come from various tables..

***ammendment

I need to return multiple values once i select a specific record in the combo box. Can someone help? The multiple values will come from a query that returns values like this:

ID          Code             Count
24          TST                4  
24          BPB                7
24          SSS                10  

In the form, the combo box would chose the ID number. Once I choose an ID number of 24, i want to return all 3 records above that come from a query called Project_Error_Final (in this example there are 3 values to return, but i want the query to return any records with ID = 24). The VBA code i have so far is:

Private Sub cboProjectID_Change()

Dim VarComboKey As Integer
Dim VarObjective As Variant
Dim VarStartDate As Variant
Dim VarEndDate As Variant
Dim VarRiskCategory As Variant
Dim VarTarDatSet As Variant

Dim VarErrorCount As Variant
Dim VarErrorCode As Variant

VarComboKey = Me.cboProjectID.Value

VarObjective = DLookup("[Objective]", "[Project_HDR_T]", "[Project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtObjective = VarObjective

VarStartDate = DLookup("[Start_Date]", "[Project_HDR_T]", "[Project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtStartDate = VarStartDate

VarEndDate = DLookup("[End_Date]", "[Project_HDR_T]", "[Project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtEndDate = VarEndDate

VarRiskCategory = DLookup("[Risk_Category]", "[Project_HDR_T]", "[Project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtRiskCategory = VarRiskCategory

VartxtTarDatSet = DLookup("[Targeted_Dataset]", "[Project_Targeted_Dataset]", "[Project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtTarDatSet = VartxtTarDatSet

VarErrorCount = DLookup("[Count_Error_Codes]", "[Project_Error_Final]", "[project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtErrorCount = VarErrorCount

VarErrorCode = DLookup("[ErrorCode]", "[Project_Error_Final]", "[project_ID] = " & VarComboKey)
Me.txtErrorCode = VarErrorCode

End Sub  

The value in question is the VarErrorCount and VarErrorCode. In the VBA code above, only a single value is returned. But, I am looking for multiple VarErrorCount and VarErrorCode values to be returned in my form once the ID combo box field is selected. In this particular example VarErrorCode should return "TST", "BPB" and "SSS." The VarErrorCount should return the corresponding VarErrorCode values: "4","7","10"

Answer 1

Yes there is!

Obviously, you need to be able to relate the combo box selection to the value you wish to be populated into the other field(s). Assuming that you have a 1:1 relationship with the PK (since you want to display only one value in your form), you can use the AfterUpdate event plus the DLookup() function to retrieve a related value using the PK.

As a simple example, I set up a table named Foods as follows:

FoodID, FoodName, FoodCategory

1, Orange, Fruits

2, Chicken, Poultry

3, Almond, Nuts

4, Lettuce, Vegetables

In the form, I have a control that selects the FoodID as the PK bound value named ComboFoods, and an unbound text box control named TextFoodCategory that we will populate with the FoodCategory from the Foods table.

I've assigned the following code to the AfterUpdate event of the Combo Box so that when the value of the combo box changes, the text box will be populated:

Private Sub ComboFoods_AfterUpdate()

'Create a variable to store the combo box primary key selection

Dim VarComboKey As Integer

'Create a variable to store the DLookup results

Dim VarFoodCat As Variant

'Capture the primary key of the combo box

VarComboKey = Me.ComboFoods.Value

'Retrieve the related field value

VarFoodCat = DLookup("[FoodCategory]", "[Foods]", "[FoodID] = " & VarComboKey)

'Set the value of the text box to the variable

Me.TextFoodCategory.Value = VarFoodCat

This will return the FoodCategory that is related to PK. This is all using one table, but the DLookup statement can be modified to reference any query or table that contains the PK.

Please note that DLookup will only work properly when the PK is unique in the data you are referencing. It will not work in a one to many relationship unless you specify other criteria that restrict the results to one record. There are other ways to use SQL queries and recordsets within VBA if you need to return multiple records, but that this out of scope for this question.

This worked when tested - best of luck!