SharePoint Lookup Field Not Changing When Updated

If you are programmatically updating the value of a lookup field and it doesn't seem to update, you need to trip "dirty" flag on that field. If you don't, SP wont know that the list item needs to be updated. Basically all you do is set the field to itself and this will mark the field as dirty. Here is an example:

SPFieldLookupValueCollection lookupValues;
lookupValues = (SPFieldLookupValueCollection)listItem["MyLookupField"];
lookupValues.Add(new SPFieldLookupValue(1, "SomeLookupValue"));
// Set the lookup field back to itself to mark it dirty
listItem["MyLookupField"] = lookupValues;
listItem.Update();

SharePoint Lookup Field Not Changing When Updated July, 2007