How to use a look up field in a DBGrid

The DBGrid component does not have look-up capabilities unless this is defined in the Data Access component it is linked too.

So the bottom line of this is modifying your TTable or TQuery which supply the data

Place on a form:
a) a TDatase
properties: AliasName = DBDEMOS, Connected = True, DatabaseName = myDATA

b) a TTable (table1)//this is the main table
properties: DatabaseName = myDATA, TableName = orders.db, Active = true

c) a TTable (table2)//this is the lookup table
properties: DatabaseName = myDATA, TableName = employee.db, Active = true

d) a TDatasource
properties: Dataset = table1 (The Main table)

Now we are going to add the name of the employee to Table1, the original table (orders.db) is not altered

e) open the field editor for table1
add orderno, empno, etc.

f) add a new field:
Properties:
name it emp_name
type = string
field type = look-up
key fields = empno
the look-up part
look up keys = empno
dataset = table2
result field = LastName

g) add a dbgrid or dbctrlgrid
properties: DataSource = DataSource1 (you will see now some data, if the table is active)

h) Open the columneditor and add:
orderno, emp_name etc.

Check out also: faq102-1212