i am not sure why i should use a rowsourcetype of 2-alias and a rowsource which is the cursor name rather that the rowsourcetype of 3-sql statement and the rowsource which is the text string with the sql select statement...does anyone know?

just to try it out though, i switched to using a rowsourcetype of 2-alias and the cursor name as the rowsource i have a new issue...

the cursor driving the combobox is 3 columns. the combobox is bound to column 2 of the cursor which hold the PK of the code selected in the combobox. columns 1 and 3 of the cursor have the code and description. when the combobox is within a grid column, the selected value will not display properly when the control in the grid column has focus. it does display correctly when the control does not have focus. if i use the same technique on a form instead of within a grid column, i don't have any problems. this was not happening when i was using the prior technique (rowsourcetype=3, rowsource=sql command). it seems to be some problem with the combobox being contained in the grid column.

any more advice?

pbd