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WyattRidesAgain

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ComboBox Value Lists Slow to Load


I'm using Access 2002 with ADO and am using unbound forms and unbound comboboxes based on static lookup tables.  I'm designing it for frontend/backend use to later migrate to an .adp with perhaps SQL Server.  On the Form_Load event, I populate the combo boxes based on static lookup lists by setting their RowSource properties to a string with the semicolon delimited value list.  This works fine, except when the number of rows becomes somewhat large, and then it takes one to two seconds for that particular combobox to load.  It's also slow to scroll.  Rather annoying.  

As an example, I have a Countries lookup table with three fields (RecordID, CountryName, and TelCode) with 238 rows.  The code fundamentally looks something like this snippet (though the string is built differently from the simple example below):

strRows = "1;Afghanistan;930;2;Albania;355;"      ' string goes on for all countries
cboCntry.ColumnCount = 3
cboCntry.ColumnWidths = "0;2000;0"
cboCntry.BoundColumn = 0
cboCntry.LimitToList = True
cboCntry.AutoExpand = False
cboCntry.AutoExpand = False
cboCntry.RowSourceType = "Value List"
cboCntry.RowSource = strRows

1)  Is the slowness in loading and scrolling long value lists in fact typical behavior for a combobox using a RowSourceType = "Value List"?

2)  If yes, then a thought I've had is to set the RowSourceType = "Table/Query" and set the RowSources  to respective local tables or queries in a separate front-end mdb holding nothing but static lookup tables.   Does that make sense?  If so, how would I create a separate ADO connection to it for the comboboxes' RowSource property?

Thanks,
Wyatt
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Lou Dufresne
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Hi Wyatt,
    This is a wild guess. Add an index(s) to the table or combo box list. This may make it run faster.

Lou
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stevbe

go with your second thought, store the data in a local table.

You can use the currentproject.connection as the connection object for the recordset you are using for the combobox
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ASKER

Hi Stevbe,

Can I use a recordset as the combo box rowsource?  I don't mean by looping through its records to either build the rowsource string or to use .AddItems one record at at time, which I understand.  Rather, I mean can you directly set the rowsource equal to the recordset, like you would with a table or query source?  I tried doing that (setting the recordset) and I got a 'type mismatch' error.

Wyatt
I don't have my reference material here with me but ... yes, you can set the source of a combobox to be a recordset. I think that you can only do this with an ADO recordset, what object library are you using to build your recordset with?

Steve
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stevbe

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That's encouraging.  I'm using ADO 2.7 library.  Can you send a quick n dirty code snippet to illustrate?  I'm guessing I have the wrong combinations of combo box properties that rejects the recordset.

Wyatt

Ooops.  I replied before I saw the code.  Sorry.  Lemme give it a try.

Wyatt
not that it will make much of a difference but you can set the locktype to readonly which will speed things up a hair.

  LockType:=adLockReadOnly


the real key is the cursortype being set to keyset which is also what you need to do when binding a form's recordset to an in memory recordset.

Steve

Steve,

It works great!!!!  Fast and clean.  Perfect.

I didn't know to look for the recordset property for the combo box object.  Learned something good today.

Many thanks!  Points are coming.
Wyatt
You are welcome, glad I could help.

Steve
Well, this is exactly what I have been trying to do for a while, but I am still struggling.

Any idea of what ADO library you need for this to work?

I am using A2000, with the Microsoft ADO 2.6 library and I get a "Method or data member not found" error on the me.cboADO.Recordset line.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help.
This is a closed question, you should open your own. The method we used to solve this question will not work in Access 2000.

Steve