Hiding a textbox that is "NULL"

[jwdawson]

I am extremely new to Access overall and am using Access 2010 to build queries and forms, so the easier explained the better. I do not have a clue on writing code and am trying to learn as I go.
What I have is several tables that each contain specific data that will be tied to one form in the end. The problem with this is there are 83 columns titled "References ", each respectively named correctly (Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3, etc...). These are to be tied to a another table through a common title. The problem is many of these "References " are empty (NULL). I may have one "Common Title" that has no "References " what so ever and another that may have up to 83 "References ".
I would like to be able to build the forms to show each "Common Title" individually with its respective "References ". I have looked at several ideas and ways of doing this with no answer as of yet.
If there is any help it would be greatly appreciated.
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[Rabbit]

Your tables are designed incorrectly, in that they are not normalized, please read this article on normalization: http://bytes.com/topic/access/insigh...ble-structures.

That way, you can begin with correctly designed tables and you won't have this null issue in the first place.

[NeoPa]

Rabbit is quite right when he explains that the difficulty stems directly from a poor understanding of how such a structure can best be handled within a database.

If you consider that you can have separate tables such that one handles the core concept (The title you referred to) while another handles any references that may be required to that core concept. That way, you can list through a query of each of the references tied to the core concept with a join that allows the concept records to be included even when there are no matching references, and have a resulting record for each reference found. These, and only these, are included in your report. There need be no requirement to exclude any that don't exist as they are never included in the first place.

For a fuller understanding of this and many of the concepts that underpin this way of approaching database structure please check out the link provided in post #2.