The Record List Control

Description

A record list control displays data in a combo box, edit-combo box, or a list box. Unlike combo boxes or list boxes, however, the record list is populated dynamically with data from records in a table. The advantage of this over a combo box or list box is that there is no limit to the number of entries that can be displayed in a record list. In addition, record lists have other advantages over combo boxes in that they can be multi-columned.

If you are familiar with the Table Lookup Field Rule, you can think of the record list control as being loosely equivalent to a table lookup. The record list control gives you a great deal of control over various aspects of the data in the drop-down list or list associated with the record list control. For example, you can control how many columns of data are displayed, column widths, what data is displayed in each column, which records are displayed in the list, and what value is returned when the user makes a selection.

While this lesson will teach you the syntax of the record list commands (which frankly can get quite tricky), the easiest way to create a record list control on an Xdialog box is to let Alpha Anywhere do it for you automatically using Action Scripting. Use the "Display an Xdialog Box" action to create the Xdialog box, and then view the underlying Xbasic code.