Displaying Multiple Records
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Sometimes you want to display many records in the same form. For example, an invoicing application might show all the orders made by a single customer on the same form.
To display multiple records, use a grid control. Grid controls provide a multi-field, multi-record view of data that can make your application’s user interface more compelling and effective. They are discussed in Viewing and editing data with TDBGrid and Creating a grid that contains other data-aware controls in the Using data controls chapter of the Delphi Developer’s Guide.
You may want to design a user interface that displays both fields from a single record and grids that represent multiple records. There are two models that combine these two approaches:
- Master-detail forms: You can represent information from both a master table and a detail table by including both controls that display a single field and grid controls. For example, you could display information about a single customer with a detail grid that displays the orders for that customer. For information about linking the underlying tables in a master-detail form, see Creating master/detail forms.
- Drill-down forms: In a form that displays multiple records, you can include single field controls that display detailed information from the current record only. This approach is particularly useful when the records include long memos or graphic information. As the user scrolls through the records of the grid, the memo or graphic updates to represent the value of the current record. Setting this up is very easy. The synchronization between the two displays is automatic if the grid and the memo or image control share a common data source.
- Note: It is generally not a good idea to combine these two approaches on a single form. While the result can sometimes be effective, it is usually confusing for users to understand the data relationships.