Many to many

[thierry.be]

Hi,

Have a (beginners) question.

I have a database file 'vendors' and another one 'types'

One vendor can be more types and one type can have more vendor.

What I am looking for is the following, When you go to vendor, the aim is to see all the types that exist and then just click in a check box if which types the vendor belongs to.

So if i am not mistaking i will need 3 files, :

vendor-

join- (this table has the primary keys of the other two)

types

I am not sure how to accomplish this, in which file i do this best , any ideas are welcome,

Thanks,

Thierry

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1+1 =1

[LiveOak]

You can actually do a multikey join without three files. Whether it is appropriate to do so depends a lot on the big picture of what you are tying to accomplish. What are "types" used for? Are they really an entity that needs a file or just a characteristic of each vendor? Gives us a little more information.

-bd

[thierry.be]

Hmmm,

Types are like functions. ( DTP, product photgraphy, creative design, application photography,....)

So when I do a search for DTP, i should get a list of all DTP'ers.

One vendor can do more functions, one vendor can be DTP and creative design for instance.

So I am looking for a way to

- perform a search easily. A search on type, if I search on DTP i should get a list af all DTP'ers

- be able to select the different types, from the complete list of types. So in vendor i should be able to selct all the types that vendor is and when there are new types created they should appear in the list,...

Hope this claryfies the situation,

Thx,..

Thierry

[LiveOak]

This really comes down to reporting. If you just want to categorize vendors by type, all you need is a 1) text field with a 2) value list of types 3) set to display as checkboxes. You can search by going to find mode and checking the desired box or boxes.

If you want to print a vendor list subsummaried by type of services and, say, have one page for each service with the vendors providing that service listed, you will need a join file. In this case a vendor must have multiple appearances. With only one vendor record, the record can't be in multiple places in a list at the same time. The join file gives you one appearance of the vendor for each service.

Whether you have a separate Service (Type) file depends upon whether types are just characteristics of vendors or Types have a lot of other information assciated with them. If each Type has a four page description associated with it, make them an "Entity" with their own file. If Type doesn't have any data beyond the name of the service, another file isn't necessary.

If you need the report, but types are just a list, a two file solution is possible. A Vendor file and a Vendor Services file. There would be one entry in the Vendor Services file for each service provided by a vendor. The Services (Types) themselves could just be a value list, rather than a file. It's kind of a join file without the other file you are joining!

Hope this helps.

-bd

[thierry.be]

Yep,

This is works....

How simple it is sometimes, thanks for your help LiveOak.

Thierry