Hi Markus,

Thanks again for the quick reply. Ironically, by setting the Column Width in the TIB_Grid.GridLinks, in my other question, the DB_KEY field went away. {grin}

I am forcing myself over to Firebird and the learning curve is a little jagged and steep, but with help like this I will be comfortable in no time at all.

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

Dave

--- In IBObjects@yahoogroups.com, Markus Ostenried <macnoz@...> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 03:05, squidsrus85 <squidsrus85@...> wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I have a TB-Grind and an SQL statement of
> >
> > SELECT name FROM TBL_ACCOUNTS whici does what I need, but I am also getting a column with a big number and the header of "DB_KEY"
> >
> > How can I hide that?
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> IBObjects does a lot of stuff in the background for you. For that it
> needs a column with unique values. Since you didn't select a primary
> key column IBO uses db_key instead, which is generated by Firebird and
> unique per result set (I think). You have several options:
>
> 1) Just hide db_key:
> Double click the query (to open it's design time editor), prepare the
> query (click the light bulb icon), and then on the FieldProperties tab
> select the db_key column and set it's Visible property to False. Have
> a look at your IB_Query1.FieldsVisible property afterwards: you can
> add these entries to IB_Connection.FieldsVisible, too, so they act as
> default for all the queries using that IB_Connection.
>
> 2) Use NAME as key:
> If your "name" column only contains unique values then you can tell
> IBO to use this column instead of db_key: Open the property editor
> (like above), select the tab SQL, there select tab KeyLinks and in the
> KeyLinks memo field enter NAME and uncheck KeyLinksAutoDefine.
> If your statement contains relation aliases (like "select a.name from
> tbl_accounts a") then you need to set KeyLinks=A.NAME and
> KeyRelation=A.
>
> 3) select primary key:
> This is what I prefer: in your select statement include the primary
> key column (like "select account_id, name from tbl_accounts"), and
> then make your account_id column invisible like under 1).
>
> HTH,
> Markus
>
> PS: with 2) Maybe if you leave KeyLinksAutoDefine=true then IBO will
> fill in KeyLinks and KeyRelation correctly for you. You have to test
> it yourself. I'm just used to specifying them myself since I always
> use relation aliases and there was a problem with IBO detecting the
> KeyRelation correctly.
>