I have a db with several tables, two of which are involved in my problem: the Student and School tables.

The school table has fields counselorFirstName and counselorLastName and address among others.

The student table has fields: address, city, state, postcode, and then a calculated field named MailingAddress.

The calculation for the Mailing Address field uses an if statement:

If (address ≠ ""; address; "c/o: " & School:counselorFirstName & School:CounselorLastName & School:Address)

--Basically, if the student does not have an address in the db, the MailingAddress field should show c/o Counselor at the school address.

My problem is that when the counselor name is updated in the school table, the MailingAddress in the student table does not update EVENTHOUGH "Do not replace exisiting value for field" is UNCHECKED.

It does update fine if the student does have an address and the address field is changed, then the new address does show up in the MailingAddress field,

So....its not updating when the related field (counselor name) is changed.

Doesnt unchecking the "Do not replace exisiting value for field" checkbox apply to related fields used in the calculation as well as fields in the same table?

Try making Mailing Address a calculation (not auto-enter) field (result is text) =

Case (

IsEmpty ( address ) ;

"c/o: " &

THANK YOU!

That worked great....Just what I needed.

Do you know why it wouldnt work the way I had it? Ive never had any problems before with that method (but maybe it is an issue of using a related field and Ive just always used it for fields in the same table...)

I was just curious to learn the "why" from this mistake.

thankx

maybe it is an issue of using a related field

Yes, it is. You will notice that a calculation that relies on a related field is automatically unstored. An auto-enter text field cannot be unstored. When you change the value of the related field, the auto-enter field is "not there" to notice the change, so to speak.