How can Access update one record out of duplicate records.

B

bfayez

Hi,

I have a database table that does not have any primary or unique columns. I
have several duplicate rows. When I edit any of the duplicate rows using an
Access form I created, Access will only update one row not all the duplicate
row. I am wondering what does Access use to ditinguish between the duplicate
rows. I know that in Oracle you can ROWID but is there anything similar in
Access that the forms are using to ditinguish between duplicate rows.

Thanks,
Bashar
 
S

Steve Schapel

Bashar,

As far as I know, there is no reliable way of controlling or
distinguishing between duplicated records.

If you added an Autonumber field to the table, you would immediately
have a value which would be a basis for making the distinction. I am
not sure whether this would serve your purpose, as it is not clear what
you are trying to achieve.
 
S

Steve Schapel

Bashar,

Tell this to your boss... A record is a record is a record. The
existence of a record is unrelated to the data it contains. If you edit
the data in a record, you are editing the data in that record. If the
data in that record just happens to be the same as the data in another
record, this is irrelevant. Yes, internally the Jet engine needs to
identify records, but it is not relevant or applicable to use this
identity system in your data management. In almost all cases, the
existence of duplicate records points to a fundamental flaw in the
design of the database, and probably indicates the need for
normalisation to be applied. If you need to distinguish between
records, you need to do this on the basis of the data contained in the
record, which means that each table needs a primary key or unique index.
In the absence of natural data which can be used as the basis of
unique identity of records, Access provides an AutoNumber data type for
this purpose.
 
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