i have two excel columns that follow the parent/child pattern (ie.
category/subcategory)

they look like something like this:


row a row b
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
category 1 subcategory 1
category 1 subcategory 2
category 1 subcategory 3
category 1 subcategory 4
category 1 subcategory 5
category 2 subcategory 6
category 2 subcategory 7
category 2 subcategory 8
category 2 subcategory 9
category 2 subcategory 10
category 3 subcategory 11
category 3 subcategory 12
category 3 subcategory 13
category 3 subcategory 14
category 3 subcategory 15

what I am trying to do is create two combo boxes, where the second box
loads itself with options that depend upon what was selected in the
first combo box.

in my specific example, the first combo box is a list of "column a"

question 1) I figured out how to load the list into the combo box, but
how can I display 3 entries:

ie. make the entries non duplicative, such as seen below:

category 1
category 2
category 3

rather then having 15 choices appear in combo box 1 as now occurs
(which looks like the list below):

category 1
category 1
category 1
category 1
category 1
category 2
category 2
category 2
category 2
category 2
category 3
category 3
category 3
category 3
category 3

question 2) how can I load combo box two with data the depends upon
what was selected in combo box 1

for example:

If category 1 is selected in combo box 1 the combo box 2 should contain
the selections:

subcategory 1
subcategory 2
subcategory 3
subcategory 4
subcategory 5

since the data for category 1 looks like:

row a row b
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
category 1 subcategory 1
category 1 subcategory 2
category 1 subcategory 3
category 1 subcategory 4
category 1 subcategory 5

similarly

If category 2 is selected in combo box 1 the combo box 2 should contain
the selections:

subcategory 6
subcategory 7
subcategory 8
subcategory 9
subcategory 10

since the data for category 2 looks like:

row a row b
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
category 2 subcategory 6
category 2 subcategory 7
category 2 subcategory 8
category 2 subcategory 9
category 2 subcategory 10

I would really appreciate any help anyone may be able to give me on
these issues.

Thanks in advance!

-Alex