For certain tables such as invoices there’s a lookup to an address table based on a unique address id. The address table has a (hidden) column with a multiline expression containing street name and number, postal code and city. Thus 3 lines effectively. This field is set as the default display column for address lookups.

The issue is that in every form of a table that is targeted by this lookup the address appears as a single line. Line breaks completely disappear. I can get around this by adding a new expression column in say the invoices table and make that multiline as well which then displays address data correcty as 3 lines. But since expression fields are always read-only this makes it impossible to change the address through this column.

I can of course ‘hack’ this limitation by adding code to a layout procedure that hides the expression field in edit mode and displays the actual address id column instead but that I think pretty much defeats the purpose of having a simple lookup.

To be clear both the display column of the lookup table and the column in the targeted table are set to multiline. And the contents appear correctly but without line breaks. The form field correctly appears as a multiline textbox with a magnifying glass next to it. The resulting single line of text appears in the middle of the textbox.

The software is updated to the very latest version (2020.2.12).

Is there something I might possibly be doing wrong here?