How to compare and eliminate any data that has appeared once

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kath
  • Start date Start date
K

Kath

I have a list of clients that download from another
program into Access. Since the list of clients grows
everyday, I keep getting more into the same list of
clents. Because I send out a one-time-only letter to each
of these clients, and I can not rely on a date in the
other sofeware to screen out which client has been sent
that letter, how do I use access to screen out any
duplicated names when I compare, like the new download
info with my last file's, and keep only the unique (only
appearing in the new sheet)clients in the new list I need?

Thanks,

Kath
 
Hi Kath,

My name is Dennis Schmidt. Thank you for using the Microsoft Access
Newsgroup.

You can control duplicate records in a table by designing a multi-field
primary key. If you can identify one field or several fields that when
combined would uniquely identify your customer, then when you attempt to
add new records to your table, Access will prevent additional records from
being added when one already exists. This will happen whether you are
trying to add a single record manually or if you are trying to import
several records into the table.

For additional information about creating indexes in Microsoft Access,
click the "Creating and Designing Tables" topic on the Microsoft Access
2000 Help page at the following Microsoft Web site:



http://support.microsoft.com/support/office/inprodhlp/contents/access/to
caccdefault.asp: Microsoft Access 2000 Help



and then view the "Working with Primary Keys and Indexes" topics.

I hope this helps! If you have additional questions on this topic, please
reply to this posting.

Need quick answers to questions like these? The Microsoft Knowledge Base
provides a wealth of information that you can use to troubleshoot a problem
or answer a question! It's located at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/c.asp?M=F>.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use. © 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.

Regards,
Dennis Schmidt
Microsoft Support
 
Thank you Dennis for your reply.

My question is, when the new entries are added, they were
done in another totally separate program. The data of
clients were then exported using Access.
So,for example, when I export data on April 3, clients A B
and C are shown on the list and I sent them the once only
letter.

Then on April 26 I exported another client list because I
noticed additional paper files. So I end up with a list
of names of clients that contains A B C D E F and G. Now
when that first list has close to 1000 names, and the
second list has 1200, all in alphabetical order, it is
simply a stupid job to compare the two print out of names
crossing out the ones I already sent the letter, to.

I know you are saying which organization is this that is
so stupid. Sigh... I know that Access can do it, maybe
even Excel(I experimented in excel, unfortunately it made
a list of names that has duplicates instead of the list of
unique ones as I needed). But because I am not authorized
to play in the softwares to find out. I don't even get the
exported data in Access. I just get the pages and pages
of print out. just hope that you can tell me the steps so
I am very certain and demand that I get the electronic
files to do it and save the 4 of us from having to match
and scratch every single name... need I say more?

Thanks in advance! A bunch! You are the first I had that
is so personalized. Good job Dennis.

Kath
 
Hi Kath,

I'm not sure that I understand your last response. Let me take a shot and
see if I can help.

If you are saying that you don't enter the records into Access but are
simply working with reports produced by Access, there are two approaches to
the resolution.

The first one is what I mentioned in my earlier email. It involves
designing a primary key for the table that holds the records so that a
person OR PROCESS that adds records to the table cannot enter duplicate
records. A process could be importing data from a file or appending
records from one table to another. This is really the proper approach to
the issue. Then when reports are created (lists printed out) there would
be no duplicates.

However, you could also use a second way to control what was printed out to
restrict duplicates. This involves basing a report on a special query.
This query can be developed to group records together (let's just say by
first name, last name and zip code) so that the query only lists one record
for each group. In this manner if there were three John Smith 11231
records in the table, the query would only list 1 record and the report
would only print one line for that record.

A properly designed database application should be able to restrict what is
entered in a table and update records when they have been printed so that a
record is only ever printed in a report one time.

Unfortunately, this goes beyond the scope of the help that I can provide in
the newsgroup.

I hope this helps! If you have additional questions on this topic, please
reply to this posting.

Need quick answers to questions like these? The Microsoft Knowledge Base
provides a wealth of information that you can use to troubleshoot a problem
or answer a question! It's located at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/c.asp?M=F>.
 
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