Question about a ref. You would think I woul...

Question about a ref.

You would think I would know ho to do this at this point, but I have tried a million different expressions and none have worked so I’m wasting crazy amounts of time.

I have a form I am trying to put together, and I would like the first field, “Employee Name” to be a drop-down menu of options based on a ref to column in another table called “Employee Name”.

The table I am referencing is ‘Master Garden List’.

I have selected “Ref” for this Column, and then tried specifying the [Employee Name] column in both the app formula field and the Valid-If field using a bunch of different expressions which seems to verify but then don’t give me what I want.

The [Employee Name] column is NOT the first column in the table I am referencing.

I think this is the problem.

It is also not the key in either table.

It only gives me the first column in the table, or other weird things no matter what I try.

How do I accomplish this? Many thanks, Miranda

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Choose the [Employee Name] as a label column, remove all app formulas and Valid_Ifs. The ref field will give you a dropdown with names instead of key column values because of that Label.

@Aleksi_Alkio Thank you!

So are you saying that in order for a column to become a Ref, it needs to be a Label as well in all instances?

When you use a ref field, it will show you the key column’s value. It will show you the Label, but it will still write the key column’s value into the spreadsheet.

@Aleksi_Alkio what if I dont want to see the key column? What if I want see another column in the spreadsheet? How do i do that?

You can use the label functionality only with the ref column. If you want to see something different, you should use normal Enum, EnumList or SELECT/Valid_If dropdowns.

@Aleksi_Alkio ok havin some difficulty with these select expressions.

My first column is Employee Name, and my expression in the valid if is

=Master Garden List[Employee Name]

Employee Name is the label but not the key and that expression works.

Then my second column is Client Name and I want it to give me a drop down menu of client names that belong to the employee name that was selected above.

But every time i try to do a de-ref it doesnt verify.

And when I tried to do a select expression it came up with a random list that was very wrong.

The employee name abd client name are both listed in the same table.

Suggestions?

I assume you are looking for dependent dropdown… you can do that with few ways. Simplest way is Master Garden list[Client Name] in Valid_If.

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