Lookup Tables

A lookup table is usually a simple table containing a list of records that are meant to be displayed as options in dropdowns, listboxes, or radio buttons. For example, a lookup table can have a field named ‘Department_Name’. The records of that table would contain the names of departments in your organization.

Note: The term ‘lookup table’ is just a designation. There is no special object in Caspio that is called as such. Any table can be used for lookup, although some may not be efficient. For example, you could make a dropdown in your DataPage and set it to show a list of all your customers from your Customers table. The list may be very long and can potentially have an adverse effect on the performance of your form. If, at the time during the designing of your DataPage, Caspio detects that a lookup table contains many values, it gives you the option to automatically create a lookup table based on its distinct values.

Lookup tables are convenient to app users because the same lookup table can be referenced on multiple DataPages, which means all user selections are standardized. At any time, you can add or remove options from your lookup table. The modification is instantly reflected on all the DataPages that use that lookup table in their dropdowns, listboxes, or radio buttons.

The image below shows an example of a simple Departments table in Table Design and Datasheet views. This table can be used as a list of Departments anywhere in the application.