I am somewhat new to MS Access and I have inherited an application with a table that uses this Lookup feature to replace a code with a value from a query to another table.
When I first used this table and exported it to Excel for analysis, I somehow got the base ID number (or whatever it would be called) rather than the translated lookup value. Now, when I do this, I get the translated text. The biggest problem is that while the base value is unique, the translated values are not, so I cannot use them for the work I am doing.
Can someone explain how to get the underlying ID value rather than the lookup value? Is there some setting I can use or some way to reference the field upon which the lookup is based. When I query the ID field, I get the lookup value. I know that the first time I did this, the spreadsheet contained the ID number not the text.
For now, I created a copy of the table and removed the lookup information from this copy, but I know I did not run into this when I did this the first time.
Thanks.
When you export to Excel, leave Export data with formatting and layout unchecked. This will create a spreadsheet with raw data values in Lookup fields.
Export settings image
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In MS Access 2016 I have a table named Master that periodically needs to gets updated with ‘updated’ data from a table named NewData. Each table has the same fields, except Master has one additional field named OTHER_SOURCES (explained further down). They each have an indexed unique id field named EVENT_ID. I’ve built an update query where the tables are joined one-to-one on the EVENT_ID field. In this query I have the fields in Master getting updated to the new values from the same fields in NewData if the TIMESTAMP field value is different. If the TIMESTAMP values haven’t changed, then those records do not get updated. This part is pretty straightforward and works fine.
However, I have end users that may make occasional changes to the values in the SIZE field of Master that need to be preserved and not overwritten with updated values from NEW_DATA. When a user makes a change in SIZE field, he documents the change with information obtained from other sources, which is stored in the extra field I mentioned earlier: OTHER_SOURCES. Here’s what I need to do, and I just can’t figure it out. Whenever a user has made a change to the SIZE field for a record, I need the update query to not override that value in the SIZE field, but still update the values in all the other fields (again, assuming the TIMESTAMP values are different between the two tables). It seems I need to use an IIF statement, but I’m thinking it needs to be done in VBA where I’m a bit of a hack. See screenshots. I greatly appreciate any help you can offer.
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You can still proceed with the update, but update it to the same value as its previous value:
SET SIZE= IIF(nz(OTHER_SOURCES,'')<>'', MASTER.Size, NEW_DATA.Size)
This assumes that anything present in the MASTER.OTHER_SOURCES column indicates that the user has changed MASTER.Size. Note that MASTER.Size will never be updated from NEW_DATA.Size until someone (end user) removes MASTER.OTHER_SOURCES.
I've run into a bit of a snag with a project I'm working on, and being new to Access I don't know if what I want to do is possible without VBA. I've looked around but all I can find are answers related to showing multiple columns, not controlling multiple fields in my DB.
To paint a picture I have a mapping system set up in my DB to help me distinguish the name and type of data is held in a table.
The setup is as follows:
-Data table is "LineItems" with an ID and the line data (think typical excel format)
-Mapping table is "LineItem_Mapper" with LineItem_ID, DataType, and Entity_ID
-A helper table "Data_Type" with ID and Name
-two "Entity" tables with differing properties both have ID and Name
The reason for the split is on data type is that the two types of data behave differently. One type has a parent child relation, and the other is a standalone row. I want to preserve this structure in my DB and feel I have done so with this mapping.
Now, on to the issue I'm running into. In my Access data entry form I want to use a combo box, as the options a user may chose for each line when entering are finite. However, this combo box is affecting the Mapping table above. I have been able to populate the box with my desired list with a custom query built from my 2 entity tables, but I don't know how to get Access to create or update the Mapping table using this box.
what I want to happen is when I chose something in the box, a line is created (or changed) in the mapping table with all 3 columns being populated. first the LineItem_ID for the line I am populating, and then the DataType and Entity ID to reflect the proper mapping.
Can Access do this on its own? Or do I need to do this with VBA?
As requested by the OP converting my commend as an answer (with a little bit more detail):
By far your best option is to use VBA. I doubt there is another way and even if there is it would be so convoluted it would be unworkable and unmanageable.
This should get you started:
In the combo box properties go tot the events tab and in After Update or On Change (look up the difference between the two events to see which behavior you prefer) click the down arrow and select [Event Procedure], then click on the … button. This will create a VBA module for you complete with the function that runs when the selected event is triggered.
You can use DoCmd.RunSQL "[Access SQL INSERT statement]" to add records to tables.
You can use Me.[MyComboBoxName] to get the current value of the combo box. Similarly the value of anything else in your active form.
You can use DLookup to get the value of any record in your tables.
Hopefully these will give you a relatively quick start.
I am pretty new to SSIS and BI in general, so first of all sorry if this is a newbie question.
I have my source data for the fact table in a csv, so I want to match the ids against the surrogate keys in lookup tables.
The data structure in the csv is like this
... userId, OriginStationId, DestinyStationId,..
What I am trying to accomplish is to match the data against my lookup table. So what I am doing is
Reading Lookup data using OLE DB Source
Reading my csv file
Sorting both inputs by the same field
Doing a left join by Id, in order to get the SK
This way, if there is no match (aka can't find the surrogate key) I can redirect that to a rejected csv and handle it later.
something like this:
(sorry for the spanish!)
I am doing this for each dimension, so I can handle each one with different error codes.
Since OriginStationId and DestinyStationId are two values from the same dimension (they both match against the same lookup table), I wanted to know if there's a way to avoid reading two times the data from the table (I mean, not to use two ole db sources to read twice the data from the same table).
I tried adding a second output to the sort but I am not allowed to. The same goes to adding another output from OLE DB Source.
I see there's an "cache option", is the best way to go ? (Although it would impy creating anyway another OLE DB source.. right?)
The third option I thought of was joining by the two fields, but since there is only one field in the lookup table (the same field) I am getting an error when I try to map both colums from my csv against the same column in my Lookup table
There are columns missing with the sort order 2 to 2
What is the best way to go for this ?
Or I am thinking something incorrectly ?
If something was not clear let me know and I'll update my question
Any time you wish you could have multiple outputs from a component that only allows one, all you have to do is follow that component with the Multicast component, whose sole purpose is to split a Data Flow stream into multiple outputs.
Gonzalo
I have just used this article on how to derive columns for a data warehouse building:- How to Populate a Fact Table using SSIS (part 1).
Using this I built a simple package that reads a CSV file with two columns that are used to derive separate values from the same CodeTable. The CodeTable has two fields Id and Description.
The Data Flow has two "Lookup" tasks. The first one joins the attribute Lookup1 against the Description to derive its Id. The second joins the attribute Lookup2 against the Description to derive a different Id.
Here is the Data Flow:-
Note the "Data Conversion" was required to convert the string attributes from the CSV file into "Unicode string [DT_WSTR]" so they could be joined to the nvarchar(50) description attribute in the table.
Here is the Data Conversion:-
Here is the first Lookup (the second one joins "Copy of Lookup2" to the Description):-
Here is the Data Viewer output with the to two derived Ids CodeTableFirstId and CodeTableSecondId:-
Hopefully I understand your problem and this is of use to you.
Cheers John
If I have a lookup field in Access with the first (bound) column hidden by setting field widths to 0";1", is there a way to see the real underlying value of the field without having to change the formatting of the lookup column?
I don't believe there is a way to access the available values without editing the lookup column.
With that said, I would point out the following:
Changing the formatting of the lookup column only impacts 2 things.
When you navigate the records from the table view you will see the new definition.
Any forms created in the future will now inherit the new definition.
In other words, changing the formatting of the lookup column doesn't impact any forms you may have already created based upon that field.
You can have a more descriptive description in your table that is completely separate from the definition in your forms.
If you want to know all of the values I suggest that you edit the drop down to show a concatenation of columns 1 and 2.
For example, lets say you had a value list of
1;foo;2;bar
The value list could be changed to
1;1-foo;2;2-bar
Then you know at a glance what the "hidden" field value represents. (The same could be done if the record source is a query.)
Turns out that there is a very simple way to do it. In the query, go to field properties and click on the "Lookup" tab, and choose textbox.
I have a database that has a bunch of survey data that I would like to work with. For several questions, the values are things like "Very important","Not at all likely" and I want to create a calculated field to assign a numeric value to these responses.
I don't want to replace the responses at all since I am going to have a user fill out a form to append the data set. I do want to have a calculated field that will automatically assign a numeric value to a text response.
I would just use a vlookup or an IF function in Excel to do this, but the problem is that Excel can't handle as much data as Access can. I need to set it up so that all Excel will house is a pivot table from the Access database.
Could anyone please tell me if there is a good way to do this? I am just not sure how to do it.
Create a new table with 2 columns: user_value (text) and numeric_value (number). Get all of the user entered values uniquely from the user entered data table with a query (the sigma symbol gives you a group by query). Put these in your new table and assign a numerical value to them. Then you can create an output query which joins your data to the lookup table and retrieves the numerical value for each user entered value.