InfoPath Dev

Suppose I have a dropdown drawing from a table, and I want the values of 2 different fields for the selection, each being stored in the appropriate form field (for example, the name and code number. I'm guessing I cannot do that directly (although I would love to be proven wrong!). If there were a way to access the other fields of the selection, then I could handle this with the appropriate field-assignment rules. If not, I'm left with kind of hacky choices: create a 3rd field that combines the values & then break them up to do the assignments, or re-query that table for other fields. Is there a way to do this that avoids these hacky choices?

I think you will need a display value that combines these - when you say "from a table" do you mean a SQL table? If so, I'd use a SQL view to create the concatenated name and code number. Then I'd use that for my dropdown. I'd add rules to set the individual fields to the correct data when the dropdown value is selected. So, my view might have Display (the concat), Code, Name. When the Display is selected, I use rules to set the form fields to the Code and the Name. If this is a SharePoint list, I'd use a calculated field for the concat... It may be possible to manually manipulate the view file to use the combined fields for the display, but I would generally not recommend that - because that is notoriously fragile..... I'm going to open a proposed future feature for FormsDesigner to allow using a formula for the display / value properties for a dropdown, however. We are starting to gather and implement ideas that move Qdabra Forms beyond what was possible in InfoPath and I think this is worth consideration.

These are SharePoint lists, and I've used both suggested "hacks" (though I hadn't thought of using the calculated field). Also, I put the concatenation in the Value instead of Display part, particularly when the other fields aren't something to be exposed to the user or the user is only expecting to see one of the fields. Looking forward to your proposed feature!