Multiple "topic" fields in data...need any records where one match

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

My record has topic1, topic2, ...topic5. I need to retrieve any records
where any of the five = my input parameter. How can I best go about this?
 
Your Table is not correctly normalized!

What you asked can be done but it is *much* better to re-structure your
Table making sure that the Table structure meets the requirements of the
Database Normalization process.
 
My record has topic1, topic2, ...topic5. I need to retrieve any records
where any of the five = my input parameter. How can I best go about this?
Click to expand...

Van is, of course, absolutely correct. You're "committing spreadsheet
upon a database", and this table design will get you nothing but
trouble! If you have a many (items) to many (topics) relationship, the
proper structure is THREE tables:

1. Your current table (with no Topics information at all)
2. A table of Topics, with one row per valid topic
3. A table linking the two, with two fields: a field linked to the
Primary Key of Table1, and a Topic field.

With this design, you can add five (or two, or seventeen) records to
the third table specifying topics applicable to a given main table
record.

That said... you can use OR logic in a query. Create a query in the
query grid containing the fields you want to see; put

[Enter topic:]

on the Criteria lines under each of topic1 ... topic5, on *separate
lines* of the query grid. This will use OR logic so that if any one
(or two or more) of the Topic fields match, you'll get the record
retrieved.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
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