What is the purpose of a Related List?

Related lists display existing relationships; they do not create the one-to-many relationship itself, but rather visualize records based on such relationships.

Dot-walking is a method to access fields from related tables for display or scripting, which is distinct from the purpose of a related list that shows actual records.

Related lists present entire records from related tables, not just individual related fields, providing a comprehensive view of linked data.

A Related List displays records from a different table that have a defined relationship (e.g., one-to-many, many-to-many) with the current record being viewed. This allows users to conveniently see all associated records, such as incidents related to a problem or tasks related to a change request, directly on the form.