I am working on appending some additional data from an Excel spreadsheet to an existing Microsoft Access database. The primary key is "RecordID", however, when I go to create the one-to-one relationship between a current table and the new table with enforced referential integrity, I am receiving the error message, "Microsoft Access can't create this relationship and enforce referential integrity". The weird thing is I went through and compared every single RecordID between the two tables, and they match 100%.
I then ran a "Find Unmatched Query" to compare the two tables' RecordIDs, and 5 RecordIDs appeared. However, they LOOK like they exist in both tables. For example, both table 1 and table 2 contain "ST101_1", but "ST101_1" was listed in the unmatched query.
Even stranger, I then opened table 1 (the master table), and for those records listed in the unmatched query, I tried to add a duplicate record. It shouldn't let me do this because "RecordID" is the primary key. However, again, for those records listed in the unmatched query, it allowed me to enter a duplicate value. For example, under "RecordID", I typed "ST101_1" and then added a new record with "RecordID", "ST101_1", and it did not give me an error message that I am entering a duplicate value!
Any input is very much appreciated - this is driving me crazy!
Relationships (the newly imported table is tblFreesurfer, which I want to connect to tblRecordID with enforced referential integrity) 1
Result of unmatched query between tblRecordID and tblFreesurfer 2
Image of my front-end, and database allowing me to enter what looks like the same RecordID 3
You have to post your table desings and relationships.
However, some unmatched query is just that - a query. Such a query can operate on any table.
You have to pick + assume that you have a master table. Of course you can add lots and lots of new records without having a record in the child table. (because you can't add two records at once!!!).
However, if the PK of this main table is in fact set as a PK, then you cannot enter the same PK value more then one time. If this is the case, then I suspect that the data being imported has trailing blanks, as this is not possible. Either your setup is wrong, or the imported data has trailing blanks. I would bring up two records with the SAME pk, and place my cursor in one of the columns, and hit f2 - you see the value in the field highlight, and you see extra spaces. While editing from Access you can't enter trailing blanks, you can with code, or during a import.
Related
I'm working on Access Microsoft 365. I have a table with 3000 entries, one of the fields is called "Artist" (includes the name of the artist). I've decided to turn this into a Lookup field, and make a table of the Artist names (so that they are all spelled correctly and the user can't misspell a name). Since the data is there already, how can I ask Access to use the data that's there and compare it to the Artist table (hoping that it's a match)? Everything I've tried deletes the Artist Name from all 3000 entries.
I advise not to build lookups in table. Just build combobox on form.
Do a Find Unmatched query to identify records in your data that do not have a match in Artists table. Access has a query wizard for that. Manually correct spelling for any bad records located.
You can save the artist name into your data but a better alternative may be to replace the name field in your data table with a number field for storing ArtistID. This will involve an UPDATE action SQL using a JOIN of the two tables on the name fields. Once the new foreign key field is populated, delete the unnecessary name field from your data table.
So I had an issue/problem that is detailed here (Sorting error in one field of Report), which leads to my current problem.
I have two tables (Owners and Boats) that were once joined in a relationship via the fields Boat_Owner – (number field on Boat Table) and Owner_ID - (Primary Key autonumber on Owner Table). Due to a problem the data type in the number field on Boat Table has been changed from number to short text.
So now the relationship is no longer working and as a result I’m getting the ‘data type mismatch’ error.
Both tables are intact with table Boat having 355 unique entries and table Owner having 295 unique entries, some owners own more than one boat. The autonumber ID’s are still intact in both tables so for example I know that Boat 401 finds its ownership with Owner 33. Unfortunately I cannot figure out how to re-establish the table relationships due to the aforementioned field data type issue.
I’m thinking I can run an append query to re-establish the owner_ID field into the Boat table as a number field.
From this point I’m going to manually enter all of the owner_ID. Far from desirable as there are 295 of them. I have been using excel to match the two tables on one spreadsheet but I’m open to suggestions if someone has a better procedure.
If it does work my thought is I could then re-establish the relationship between the two tables.
I’m not sure if I am going about this the best way, or even if this is the correct way to go about this.
If anyone has input I’m open to suggestions. I’ll post my progress if there is some.
Right now the column contains the names in text form.
Then you can do the following:
Create a new column in Boats: Owner_ID Number, Long integer.
Then fill this column with an UPDATE query from a join via the owner names:
UPDATE Boats INNER JOIN Owners
ON Boats.Boat_Owner = Owners.Owner_Name
SET Boats.Owner_ID = Owners.Owner_ID
If there are duplicate names (John Smith), there will be wrong assignments and you'll have to correct these manually.
When all Owner_ID's are assigned correctly, you can create a new 1:n relationship, now from Owners.Owner_ID to Boats.Owner_ID.
Afterwards you should delete the Boats.Boat_Owner column, it is now useless.
Issue:
I am developing a simple issue tracking database and have hit a stumbling block that I’m not sure how to resolve. Have tried several approaches using queries, sql statement etc but still not working. I may have to rethink how I am doing this but hoping someone may be able to address the issue as it stands, though if a more elegant way of doing it happy to implement that.
Scenario:
A table called tblUsers has a field called Access that is a lookup to a table called tblCategory and allows for multiple values to be stored (one to many). In essence this is saying which category(s) of “issue” the user is allowed to
A simple msgbox test in code shows that this is correctly storing the values selected in the following format "1, 2, 3, 4"
In turn, each issue can only have a single category (one to one) which is stored in a field called Category in table tblGMPIssues and is also populated from a lookup to the tblCategory table.
So far so good ….
I then have a query called qryUserIssues that should show all issues from the table tblGMPIssues that are a) “Open” (status = 1) and that b) match any of the categories that the user is permitted to view.
I can get this to work with a single value i.e. as it stands query prompts for input and if you enter a single valid integer it returns expected results
But I can’t work out the syntax to get the criteria to accommodate multiple values. For example, in above scenario our user should be allowed to see 4 different category or calls “1, 2, 3, 4”
Tried using INNER joins, tried assigning to variables and using a LIKE criteria but can’t seem to get the syntax right.
If anyone could let me know if this can be done and if so how as it’s driving me nuts.
All help and suggestions gratefully received.
Updated relationship diagram --> 1
For precisely the reason that you've asked this question I would recommend never using the multi-select lookup option for columns in MS Access tables. Instead create an intersection table which tells you the combinations of values from the two main tables that are allowed. So instead of having the multi-select Access column in tblUsers, you should have a separate table called tblUserAccess with two columns (UserID and CategoryID). The two columns together will form a composite Primary Key for this table, and individually they will be Foreign Keys to tblUsers and tblCategory respectively. (You should do the same kind of thing with tblType - remove the Categories column and set up a separate table called tblTypeCategories).
Coming to your query, are you expecting this to show you all the relevant Issues for a particular user? At the moment, it is not doing this. The reason it is prompting you for input is because it doesn't understand ([tblUsers].[Access]) - tblUsers is not referenced in your query, and the query has no way of knowing which particular user you're interested in.
With your new table in place (and populated with the relevant data) you should add tblUserAccess to the query, joining tblGMPIssues.Category to tblUserAccess.CategoryID. Take the ([tblUsers].[Access]) condition off the Category column. Add the UserID column to the grid and set the criteria to [Input UserID]. Now when you run the query it will ask you for a user ID, and it should hopefully show you all the Issues that the given user can access.
Good luck!
First, I suggest you normalize your data a bit:
You have a number of tables that are reference data (e.g. tables tblStatus, tblSeverity, tblLocation). You have a s a primary key a (system generated) ID. That is wrong! The primary key of these should be their data, i.e. status, severity, location.
I can't see what the relationships are between the data. It should be one-to-many, mandatory (i.e. one Status can occur in many tblGMPIssues and a status is mandatory).
Your table tblType is unclear to me but it contains the categories. I am not familiar with the '-' before Categories followed by a Categories.Value but I assume an occurrence of tblType can contain exactly one Categories.Value. If not, then you must decompose this table.
If a User has access to a number of Categories, then there must be a many-to-many relationship betwen Users and Categories. From this relationship you do your select query, but I don't see this relationship.
Use following query to get any of the Category IDs 1, 2, 3 or 4
Select * from tblGMPIssues where tblGMPIssues.Category in (Select UserAccess from tblUserAccess)
I still have many problems with your relational design, or actually the lack of a proper relational design. As an example, below is a diagram from my Access 2007 showing a part of your database with a proper design. Access automatically shows that "one" and "many" symbols (which I don't see in your diagrams). I also show the relationship dialog with the proper fields checked. Note that none of the keys of any table, except tblIssue, has a system generated primary key. They are all plain text whch allows better understanding when inspecting the data and, as said, the database automaticlly updates child tables when the primary key value of a parent table changes.
Note table tblCategoryType: it implements a many-to-many relation between categories and types, meaning a category can be of zero or more types and a type can be in zero or more categories. In addition to "update cascades", this table has the "delete cascades" checkbox checked so if a category is deleted, all its relations with types are deleted (not the types).
In my Microsoft Access 2013 database, I have 3 Call Detail areas in which I can document the outcome of calls to potential new customers. The final step in the 3 details, is an outcome displaying what the call generated. I would like to avoid the word "Booked" being duplicated in the 3 outcome fields I have.
The 3 fields I want to prevent "booked" duplication are respectively named; [outcome1],[outcome2],[outcome3]
Normalize the schema and you can use an index constraint. The outcomes should be in a separate table related to the call table with a foreign key. Once you do that you can be sure no duplicate outcomes are tied to the same foreign key.
BTW, one outcome attribute per record. Not three attributes that mean the same thing but are named differently in one record.
So the root of this problem may lie in poor database design, some of the way this is set up is inherited from older versions. I just couldn't figure out a better way to do this.
I have four tables linked by the same field: [OBJECTID]. Each table is linked to an Access Form that controls the data. It is important that these tables be separate as the data is georeferenced and needs to be mapped separately, however they inherit several fields from one another by default.
Most of the time, the tables are in a one-to-one-to-one-to-one relationship, however occasionally, there is only data for the first table, and occasionally, there is only data for the second, third and fourth form.
Right now, the [OBJECTID] field in the first table is set to datatype autonumber, so that all subsequent linked records in the other tables can inherit that number. For the cases where the record in Tbl1 are not entered via Form1, it is easy enough to just assign a number that does not conflict with any current number, but how do I avoid assigning a number that could conflict with some future [OBJECTID] generated by the autonumber field in Tbl1?
Sorry if that is confusing! Thanks in advance for helping me think this through....
If the design is correct, there should be a relationship with referential integrity between tbl1 and table 2/3/4. Since you mention that occasionally, there is only data for the second, third and fourth form that means we have no referential integrity here :-/.
I would identify the fields that are common to all 4 tables, and create a "main" table with those, meaning that the main table MUST be filled. Then you create a 1 to 0,1 relationship to the other 4 tables, with an outer join, their PK beeing then a Long Integer.
For the source of your forms 1 to 4, use an outer join between MainTable and T1/2/3/4. The "subtables" will then inherit the PK of the main table.
Hope I am not too obscure.