Skip to Content
0
Jan 26, 2009 at 03:57 PM

Can a description appear next to the key value when using a check table?

1097 Views

Good day, everyone!

Here's my situation: I have created table A. In table A, the customer would like to have one of the fields restricted to one of 10 possible values. The values are actually titles of programs that can go out to 80 characters in length. So, I decided to make the field in table A be a character field (length of 2). I then have table B, which consists of a single key -- the character field (length of 2), followed by a description, which is the full 80 character description of the field (the program title).

In table A, I declared the 2-character field as a foreign key, and specified table B as my check table. I generated my table maintenance for table A. So far, so good. Now, when I go into SM30 to test my table maintenance, I can get a drop-down for the program field. However, it only displays the 2-character ID (in other words, it is a foreign key and it displays the possible values that I entered into check table B). The description does NOT display next to the key field. The end users don't really know -- or care -- about the 2-character "key" value. In the ensuing report, it is the 80-character program title that will display. But for space saving purposes, I really don't want to keep repeating the 80-character field in table A.

I've tried several things with no luck. How can I make it so that the end user adding entries to table A can get a drop-down of the possible values for the program title field and actually see the entire 80-character description, not just the 2-character ID that is assigned?

Thank you!

Dave