Query to Eliminate Duplicates

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rebecca
  • Start date Start date
R

Rebecca

Greetings again (and again).

I have a table with a field that contains many
duplicates. I know this an indication of bad database
construction, but there is a reason for these duplications
that I won't waste your time explaining. I need to run a
query that will reduce these duplicates down to one, so
that in a sort I will see only one of each of the many
duplicates. How can this be done? And please explain in
very easy English please. Thanks.
 
Use a SELECT statement with DISTINCT:

SELECT DISTINCT fieldName
FROM tableName;

(Hope this is "easy English"!) :o)

P
 
Thanks, the query worked well. One more question,
though. Why can't I edit the records? They appear to be
locked.
 
most likely you cannot edit the "field" because it represents many fields ...
but you likely could do an update query.
 
The SELECT DISTINCT query returns a recordset which is not updatable, this
is because you would not know which record in the table you would be
changing.

Have you tried looking at the help files within Access? They may contain a
lot of jargon you are not familiar with but there is a lot of information in
there you will understand.

P
 
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