>>>>Trouble is, the District list is in the correct DESC order but the Zones table is higgledy-piggledy order.
>>>>
>>>>Any ideas what's amiss?
>>>
>>>"DESC" as descending or description?
>>>
>>>And I'm not quite sure what do you mean by master-child here... do you mean the grids' recordsources are zones and districts respectively, and you got the county related into each (additive)? And if so, related via what field?
>>
>>Thank you (the only one who's answered)
>>
>>As I said, the DESC (Description) field of each table (not my table design)
>>
>>Belay what I said aboutn reversing the master [parent] - child order. I though I had but hadn't.
>>
>>Grid 1 has:
>>- recordsource = ZONES
>>- LinkMaster = COUNTY
>>- ChildOrder = County (FK to COUNTY.Code - PK)
>>- RelationalExpre = Code
>>and if we look at the reln. arc's props in the DE:
>>- ChildAlias = ZONE
>>- ChildOrder = County
>>- ParentAlias = COUNTY
>>- RelationalExpre = Code
>>
>>Grid 2 has:
>>- recordsource = DISTRICT
>>- LinkMaster = COUNTY
>>- ChildOrder = County (FK to COUNTY.Code - PK)
>>- RelationalExpre = Code
>>and if we look at the reln. arc's props in the DE:
>>- ChildAlias = DISTRICT
>>- ChildOrder = County
>>- ParentAlias = COUNTY
>>- RelationalExpre = Code
>>
>>So they both have similar key names and same relnship with COUNTY table. I have them both ordered on their DESC fields, so the descs appear in the grid in alphbetical order. Now this works (or seems to - maybe just luck) for the DISTRICT table but the ZONES table appears in random order, but the underlying table in the DE shows them to be in County (FK) order.
>>
>>Now I realise this is the ChildOrder, but when I set the Order prop, in the DE, to DESC I assumed the table would display in that order but I find the County FK is overriding.
>>
>>Maybe I'll have to make a composite key of County+Desc, but that won't have a matching parent index in the COUNTY table./
>>
>>IOW I want to display all the ZONEs for a particular COUNTY, but I want those zones in the grid, in their DESCription field order. I think it IS just luck that the DISTRICT table is in the right order.
>
>You just can't have it ordered by Desc if they are ordered by county. The one table that looks right was maybe just accidentally populated in that order - try to add some district or zone starting with a B and my guess is it would go to bottom.

Aye, I figured that.

>
>The composite key is your way out, or using cursors (with so-called safe select - and if the grids are editable, some code for write-back into the source tables), or parametrized views. And the composite key will work, unless you have Set Exact On - i.e. seek("008") will find a record whose county+desc="008Knockshire"

Yeah, I guess. Not editable grids anyway so simpler. Cheers mate.