How do I limit the items in a “List Box” column based on another column's input in a table in MS Access?

Question

I tried setting up a relationship although I don't know if this is how I'm meant to do it:

Category column settings:

Description column settings:

Linked to the table that contains different type of furniture, "Furniture":

Furniture design:

So what I want to do, is make it so that when you choose a furniture category, you can only choose from furniture descriptions of that category:

Answer 1

I do not think this can be done using only tables — you'll have to create a form that will limit the selection in the descriptions listbox based on the category.

Also, there are a number of problems with your data structure:

• I imagine multiple Furniture s can have the same CATEGORY . This means that CATEGORY cannot be the primary key -- a uniquely identifying piece of data -- for Furniture . I would suggest adding a Long number column called FurnitureID . If you make this an Autonumber column, every new record will get a new number by default; otherwise you'll have to insert the number by hand.
• Once you have such a column, you should have a corresponding column — AKA the foreign key column — in Stock of the same type (or Long if the FurnitureID is an Autonumber ). These two columns should be related in the Relationships window. The relationship means that every ¹ Stock record must have a related Furniture record with the same data in both records.
• Once you've done that, there is no need to repeat the CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION fields between the Stock and Furniture tables. This means no duplicate data, and no potential conflicts.

^{1. Depending on how the column is defined, it might be possible to have no data in the foreign key column in the Stock record; but this is relatively uncommon}