Solved: Ref or Valid If for Dropdown

shahappsheet · 11-01-2021 10:19 AM

Hello! Hope everyone is fine.

Dropdown can be done by using Ref and using Valid If. Valid If also can be used to filter data, so far I could understand. Would you please suggest me at normal condition/situation which one is suggested (Ref/Valid If)? Or which one is advantageous?

Thanks.

Steve

The Ref data type provides references between tables, which can be useful for a variety of reasons; but if you have no need for references, using them solely because they make for an easy dropdown menu is likely to cause confusion and lead to problems. Setting a column type to Ref applies specific expectations to the values in the column that you may not want.

You might also consider using the Enum or EnumList column types. If you enable Auto-complete other values, the user will be offered a dropdown of values that already occur in that column.

See also:

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Steve

The Ref data type provides references between tables, which can be useful for a variety of reasons; but if you have no need for references, using them solely because they make for an easy dropdown menu is likely to cause confusion and lead to problems. Setting a column type to Ref applies specific expectations to the values in the column that you may not want.

You might also consider using the Enum or EnumList column types. If you enable Auto-complete other values, the user will be offered a dropdown of values that already occur in that column.