Question

Microsoft Access Option Group Radio Buttons Default to Null not working

Asked by: HTC1898

I have a Microsoft Access 2000 form that has an option group with radio buttons.  I just want a 'yes' or a 'no' answer and I want it to be mandatory.  So a checkbox won't work.  I have the option group set up and I have the default value set to null because I don't want either the yes or the no option to be selected.  I want the user to be forced to select one or the other.  This seems to be working other then once the user keys in data into the other fields on the form, the 'no' gets selected in the option group.  How do I keep the radio buttons in the option group unselected until the user actually clicks one of the radio buttons?

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Asked On
2007-10-23 at 08:27:59ID22912123
Tags

access

,

option

,

button

,

radio

,

group

Topics

Access Forms

,

Visual Basic Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
250
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: ragoranPosted on 2007-10-23 at 09:40:48ID: 20132364

Is the opetion group bound to a column ?  Does this column has a default value ?

Do the Option Group has a default value ?

Have you try to use a check box with its Triple State property set to Yes (it can then be checked, unchecked or greyed out (null)

 

by: HTC1898Posted on 2007-10-23 at 11:15:40ID: 20133095

Yes, the option group is bound to a field in my table.  If they select 'yes' then it puts a -1 in the table.  If they select 'no' it then puts a 0 in the table.

The field in the table does not have a default value.  But the option group itself has a default value of null so that neither one of the radio buttons is selected.  This forces the user to select one of the two buttons (the field is required).

I don't know anything about the Triple State property.  Can you explain it a little?  I just want the user to be forced to answer either 'yes' or 'no'.  A normal checkbox left un-checked is a 'no' but if they didn't actually select 'no' that could imply they just forgot to answer the question.  So I want to force the user to actually pick 'yes' or 'no'.   Is that something the Triple State will do?

 

by: ragoranPosted on 2007-10-23 at 11:31:00ID: 20133241

I ran some test.

If the column are set as Yes/no field, the control value is set to 0 even if the column is not required and the default value is set to Null.

BUT I change the type of the column to number (integer) and the option group remained NULL until the user makes a choice.  If he doesn't select a value before saving the record, there is an error message from the database, so you should add your own validation in the BeforeUpdate event of the form.

Triple State is for check box only, bound to Yes/no field that are nullable (is required set to No).  When the user click in the checkbox, it will cycle from checked, unchecked and grayed out (i.e. null).  Because your column is required, you can't used this checkbox.

 

by: HTC1898Posted on 2007-10-23 at 12:02:01ID: 20133513

Something you said made me go look at the table.  I remember changing the field from a yes/no to a number so I could set the value in the field based off which radio button was pushed.  I set the value of the 'yes' button to -1 and the value of 'no' to 0.  Since I wanted neither button to be selected, I set the default value of the option group on the form to Null.  I thought this overrode anything set in the table.  So when I went and looked in the table, the default value in the table for that field was 0.  The same value that I have associated with the 'no' radio button.  That is why it kept selecting 'no' even though no one had clicked on 'no'.  So apparently the default value on the form does not trump the default value set in the table.  Once I changed the default value of the number field in the table to Null, the option group remains Null until someone actually selects one of the two radio buttons.

Thanks so much!!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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