My tree looks like this

Office
     Forms
           Add Data
                 Main
                 Employee
                 Staff
                 HR
                           HR

I am running look up From staff in to HR
I want an xlookup using the element employeeid from staff
Staff is a sub form of main
The element in HR form is Employeeid that I want to match
The element in HR I want to return is Department.
I want to return it to the userdept element on staff

I am using the xlookup from a sub form

I am confused what is the form to use in the xlookup the main form or the sub form or?

I am confused with xlookups in use with sub forms can you please give a clear example of the xlookup syntax with relation to sub forms.

This is one of the many I tried
Xlookup(@fn,employeeid,"HR!employeeid","department",userdept)


Thank You.

Thanks,

But what syntax did you use. what is the form what is the subform. I just need a simple method to retrieve data from one db to another in the same application.

Your syntax appears to be correct. Carefully check the spelling of the form and element names - watch for spaces.

Make sure that you are NOT testing it in Preview Mode (the 'X' family of functions don't work in Preview Mode). Be sure to test it in Sesame runtime as opposed to SDesigner's preview.

EDIT: Also, make sure that you are referring to the element names - not the field names ('bound to' names), and not the element labels.

Marie,

I try to explain it better:
Price Each = @xlookup(@Fn",Part Number,("Mastinv!Item number"),"Price Each")

Price Each is the present element in the subform
Part Number is the key in the subform to match.
Mastinv is the mainform
Item Number is the key in the mainform to match
Price Each is the element brought back from the mainform.

I worked on a xlookup one time for several hours, only to remember it only works in runtime.

Also had the problem with the security that Ray mentioned.

Done the one Bob mentioned too, misspelled element names, or bad syntax.

Good Luck !!