Displaying a Single Record
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In many applications, you may only want to provide information about a single record of data at a time. For example, an order-entry application may display the information about a single order without indicating what other orders are currently logged. This information probably comes from a single record in an orders dataset.
Applications that display a single record are usually easy to read and understand, because all database information is about the same thing (in the previous case, the same order). The data-aware controls in these user interfaces represent a single field from a database record. The Data Controls category of the Tool palette provides a wide selection of controls to represent different kinds of fields. These controls are typically data-aware versions of other controls that are available on the Tool palette. For example, the Vcl.DBCtrls.TDBEdit control is a data-aware version of the standard TEdit control which enables users to see and edit a text string.
Which control you use depends on the type of data (text, formatted text, graphics, boolean information, and so on) contained in the field. The following topics describe these components in more detail:
- Displaying Data as Labels
- Displaying and Editing Fields in an Edit Box
- Displaying and Editing Text in a Memo Control
- Displaying and Editing Text in a Rich Edit Memo Control
- Displaying and Editing Graphics Fields in an Image Control
- Displaying and Editing Data in List and Combo Boxes
- Displaying and Editing Data in Lookup List and Combo Boxes
- Handling Boolean Field Values with Check Boxes
- Restricting Field Values with Radio Controls