Using an Enum to show descriptions?

[CraigBest]

Hey Folks

I have a field I use in a table that holds an integer value that described the status of a record. I would like to use an Enumeration to display the descriptions of those Status codes.

I have created a module-level Enum called Status in my application that has several values tied to it -- NoStatus = 0, Draft = 1, Approved = 2, etc.

How do I now use that Enum to display the description in a text field when I read the numeric value from the data record?

Thanks

Craig

 

[recurse]

Craig,

You have the right idea but you are going about it a little backwards. There is no way intercept the description of an enum at runtime, enums are specifically meant as a convience for developers to allow parameters and other data to be descriptive rather than numeric hard-coded values.

What you want to do is create a "lookup" table in your database that has two columns, nCode and strDesc. On the form load event, do something like this:

set rsStatus = cn.execute("select nCode, strDesc from tblStatus&quot

do while rsStatus.eof = false
cmbStatus.AddItem rsStatus("strDesc&quot
cmbStatus.ItemData(cmbStatus.newindex) = rsStatus("nCode&quot

rsStatus.MoveNext
loop

The reason you want to take this approach is so that in the future if you want to present the original record in a descriptive manner, you can simply join the first table to the lookup table and the result will be human readable.

Hope this helps.

 

[CraigBest]

Ah, I see. That explains why I couldn't find example of it in the help system. I have used the lookup table method many tiles but thought this time I would try an Enum. Too bad it won't do what I thought!

I appreiciate your help in setting me straight on what an Enum is used for.