Tip of the Month (July 2001)

Removing Entries From User-Can-Add Dropdowns

Visual CE's dropdown controls have an optional user-can-add property. If the property is enabled, users can either pick a value in the drop down or type in a new/different value.

For user-can-add dropdowns, when the form comes up, the table is scanned for the new/different values. Then, as the form is used and the user enters new values, these new/different values are added to the list. While the form is open, entries are only added to the list (they are never removed).

So, if you design the form with RED, GREEN, and YELLOW in the dropdown and some user creates a record with the value VIOLET and another with PURPLE, both VIOLET and PURPLE will be added to the list. If you close the form and re-open it, the list is initialized with RED, GREEN, and YELLOW plus the values found in the records in the table (VIOLET and PURPLE).

So, how do you get rid of a value? Just remove it from all the records in the table. For example, if you removed all the PURPLE records (or changed it to another value), PURPLE will remain on the list until the form is closed. When the form is closed and opened again, the list is initialized with RED, GREEN, and YELLOW plus the values found in the records in the table (VIOLET, but not PURPLE).