Choice vs Reference

She Sull · ‎06-06-2014

What is the difference between the Choice field type and the Reference field type? In Managed Documents, the Type (document type) field shows it is a reference field when you right click and select Show- 'type' , but it seems to be behaving like a Choice field and even provides the options Personalize Choices and Show Choice List.

Pradeep Sharma · ‎06-06-2014

Hi Sherry,

Here is my understanding

Type :Choice:

if field type is choice then you see Drop-Down list of choices.(It can be reference to the table)
The choice can be personalized

Type:Reference

Query that displays records from another table
Here we dont see the behavior of field as drop-down

I hope this helps

Thanks,

Pradeep Sharma

View solution in original post

She Sull · ‎06-09-2014

Thanks, Rajeev! I will consider your resolution as I am going back to the drawing board on how to implement this functionality.

randrews · ‎06-09-2014

basic answer a choice list is going to return a value.. this can be used as either the value or the display value..

a reference field is going to return an object... not just the display value for that object.. while it may seem a minor point it is VERY important as you work with that item to understand if it is an object, a value, or a pointer to an object as you start to use it in other places.

chris_smith · ‎06-25-2014

Hi Sherry,

I'm also working on Managed Docs for a customer of ours and although the type for that field is choice, it can have a reference qualifier on it via the dictionary for that field. I know it seems strange that it has two separate terms ( "Choice" in Slushbucket for personalizing layout vs. "Reference" in Dictionary) but based on how it is set up you should be able to use a reference qualifier in this case.

Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks,

Chris Smith

Logicalis