Dependent Combo Box

The Access dependent combo box is one of the first techniques a new programmer must master.  Hopefully the downloadable example will save you a lot of time figuring out your first dependent dropdown list code.

This example demonstrates the tables, queries and form programming needed to setup a combo box dropdown list dependent on the values in another combo box.

In this demo we have a list of student advisors and a list of students.  When you select an advisor the dependent combo box (students) is limited to those students who have been assigned the selected advisor.

Here is a snapshot of the code contained in the database:

Main combo after update event:

Private Sub Advisor_Combo_AfterUpdate()
Me.Student_Combo.Requery
End Sub

Record source for the dependent combo:

SELECT M_Students.Student FROM M_Students WHERE (((M_Students.Advisor_ID)=[Forms]![F_Combo]![Advisor_Combo]))

You will also need an on current event which also requeries the dependent combo box.  This is needed to coordinate the dependency when going from record to record in data review mode.

Download our Access Dependent Combo Box programming example.