Linking Tables

[Maria Tique]

Please Help:

Filemaker pro 7

Table - Department master (contains the department number 'deptno')

Table - Employee child (contains employee number, employeename, deptno)

I have the tables related as such - Deptno in Department master is the unique value....deptno in Employee is the foeign key...in the Relationships section of the database its set up as a one-to-many (One department, many employees)

My problem:

I created a Department Layout and a Employee layout.

How can i ensure that the foreign key (deptno) will only allow values that exist from the master (deptno)? In other words if master deptno only has deptno of 10,20,30,40 then child deptno will not be able to allow any other values other than master deptno values 10,20,30,40. Currently i am able to input foreign key deptno 80 but i shouldn't because it is not a value in the master! Oh and yes i drag the deptno master to the deptno child in the relationship graph to create the one to many relationship.

Any help or direction is greatly appreciated.

[T-Square]

If you set up a value list based on the data in the departments table, and then define the deptno field in the employees layout as a dropdown list (or menu depending on your preference) that uses the value list as its control, that will limit the user to entries that already exist in the Department table. Unless you select the "Allow user to edit" option in the control...

[Maria Tique]

Thank you so much for replying and it is a great idea i have not thought of but how will this ensure that deptno in Departmetn layout will be carried over to deptno Employee layout whenever i make changes to the Department layout.

Also, is it true that in Filemaker 5 and 6 tables were created in different files and in version 7 the tables are created in the same file?

Thanks so much for the reply.