Is "reformatting" a simple question?

J

James Silverton

Recently, I had occasion to want to "reformat" an Access data base. By that
I mean that I had several fields that I wanted to split into two separate
fields. Is there a standard way to do this? I found the simplest way was to
export to Excel and do the work there with Excel functions but I am
certainly more familiar with Excel than Access.

TIA,
 
J

Joe Fallon

That is a fairly common event for inexperienced database developers.
As you gain experience you will design the tables better the first time so
you do not run into this issue.
For now, it is fine to go with "what works".
Begin by reading Help on Database desgin and then search for some more
articles on the Web to get more details.
 
J

James Silverton

Joe Fallon said:
That is a fairly common event for inexperienced database developers.
As you gain experience you will design the tables better the first time so
you do not run into this issue.
For now, it is fine to go with "what works".
Begin by reading Help on Database desgin and then search for some more
articles on the Web to get more details.

Thanks, that's good advice but do you *never* make mistakes in design (g)?
 
J

James Silverton

James Silverton said:
Thanks, that's good advice but do you *never* make mistakes in design (g)?

Might I just add that I did not mean to be sarcastic! I know I make mistakes
in initial programming and I've been doing it for a very long time indeed!
Even Microsoft makes mistakes; witness RAND() in Excel2003 and the latest
"security update" to Outlook Express :)
 
I

Immanuel Sibero

Hi

I dont think *never making mistakes* was implied there. Just the fact that
mistakes oftentimes are direct function of experience.
When you do something right, it's an accomplishment, when you make a mistake
it's an experience. A less experienced person will make more mistakes than a
more experienced person. The more experienced person are making less
mistakes probably because they have made them before and they remember not
to ever make them again. :)


Immanuel Sibero
 
J

Joe Fallon

James,
LOL!
Of course I made all these mistakes in the beginning.
This *is* the GettingStarted group isn't it?

Just trying to point out how to avoid some of them in the future.
My last few designs were pretty good - I work hard on table structure prior
to beginning anything else.
Then the rest of the app just "flows" nicely. Forms and reports are much
easier to design with the correct underlying table structure.
 

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