Cut and Paste

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Boyd
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave Boyd

Hi,

I'm doing some table maintenance on a small database and am having
trouble understanding cut and paste.

I have a new table imported from Excel that has some improved data for
a particular field. I do a query that matches the new table and the
old table and shows the new improved fields and the old fields (ie the
column). The query is because the old table has more data that is
scattered relative to the new improved data. The query allows me to
only update the improved records.

Now, in the query datasheet I select the new column, copy, and then
select the old column. The number of records matches and the data
type for the two fields matches. Paste is greyed out and does not
work.

Another maintenance task was moving a field and its column of data to
a new field in a table (in which the new field was added). Using the
same technique of selecting the old column in the query and pasting it
into the new field (different table) seemed to work great. I then
deleted the column in the old table and was happy that my little db
was more relational and normalized than before. I can't reproduce
this simple operation now, I have same problem as above.

What are the rules?? Why does it work sometimes and not others --
according to the documentation on copy and paste for multiple fields
there should be no problem or am I missing the fine print?

Dave
 
Why are you cutting and pasting? Change your query into an update query and
let access do all the work for you.


Hi,

I'm doing some table maintenance on a small database and am having
trouble understanding cut and paste.

I have a new table imported from Excel that has some improved data for
a particular field. I do a query that matches the new table and the
old table and shows the new improved fields and the old fields (ie the
column). The query is because the old table has more data that is
scattered relative to the new improved data. The query allows me to
only update the improved records.

Now, in the query datasheet I select the new column, copy, and then
select the old column. The number of records matches and the data
type for the two fields matches. Paste is greyed out and does not
work.

Another maintenance task was moving a field and its column of data to
a new field in a table (in which the new field was added). Using the
same technique of selecting the old column in the query and pasting it
into the new field (different table) seemed to work great. I then
deleted the column in the old table and was happy that my little db
was more relational and normalized than before. I can't reproduce
this simple operation now, I have same problem as above.

What are the rules?? Why does it work sometimes and not others --
according to the documentation on copy and paste for multiple fields
there should be no problem or am I missing the fine print?

Dave
 
Rick B said:
Why are you cutting and pasting? Change your query into an update query and
let access do all the work for you.


Hi,

I'm doing some table maintenance on a small database and am having
trouble understanding cut and paste.

I have a new table imported from Excel that has some improved data for
a particular field. I do a query that matches the new table and the
old table and shows the new improved fields and the old fields (ie the
column). The query is because the old table has more data that is
scattered relative to the new improved data. The query allows me to
only update the improved records.

Now, in the query datasheet I select the new column, copy, and then
select the old column. The number of records matches and the data
type for the two fields matches. Paste is greyed out and does not
work.

Another maintenance task was moving a field and its column of data to
a new field in a table (in which the new field was added). Using the
same technique of selecting the old column in the query and pasting it
into the new field (different table) seemed to work great. I then
deleted the column in the old table and was happy that my little db
was more relational and normalized than before. I can't reproduce
this simple operation now, I have same problem as above.

What are the rules?? Why does it work sometimes and not others --
according to the documentation on copy and paste for multiple fields
there should be no problem or am I missing the fine print?

Dave
Click to expand...

Rick, thanks for the reply, I'm not sure how to change my query into
an update query or if that will fix the problem. Does as update query
remove the table update restrictions discussed below?

The rule I was looking for is buried in help and should be part of a
note in the help for cut and paste for multiple fields in a query
worksheet. (Did I overlook it??) The unspoken problem is whether
asking the group for help is faster or if it is valid to say
ReadTheF...Manual.

The rule I finally found concerns cascading updates of the tables
underlying the query. The tables must be joined on a key that does
not allow duplicates (see help table updates for other valid query
states). If this is the case then cut and paste will work. I changed
the fields to keyed with no duplicates and it worked. I'm happy
again, life is free of frustrations!

Hope this helps beginners who will continue to do things via the GUI
and in simple, intuitive operations. I believe the static cut and
paste help should clearly note this restriction and the paste
operation context help should support a clear, informative error
message when attempting this operation. (By the way the case above
that worked happened to satisfy the query conditions that allow table
updates, but since I didn't understand...)

Dave
 
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