merging or copying data in a table in two different db's

[jamesb]

I have one database that has been downloaded on two different computers(They
are networked). Each one has a different interface (Form) than the other,
based on the users needs. The tables and ALL underlying work are the same.
How do I go about merging the data from one data base to the other. Kind of
like a merge of records? I would like to set up a button, or command to do
this easily on a weekly or even daily basis.

Thanks in advance

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have one database that has been downloaded on two different computers(They
are networked). Each one has a different interface (Form) than the other,
based on the users needs. The tables and ALL underlying work are the same.
How do I go about merging the data from one data base to the other. Kind of
like a merge of records? I would like to set up a button, or command to do
this easily on a weekly or even daily basis.

Thanks in advance

If the computers are networked, I'd strongly suggest going one step better!
Multiuser databases (whether with the same user interface for all users, as is
common, or different user interfaces) should be "split", with the user working
with a database containing their forms, reports, queries and so on, and links
to a shared "backend" containing the tables. That way changes made by one user
are immediately available to the other user with no code required.

Merging two database can be fairly easy or monstroustly difficult depending on
their structure. If it's just a simple table, you can use File... Get External
Data... Link in one database (the target for the final merged database), and
an Append query to append the records.

However, if there are duplicate records in the two tables, or (worse)
almost-duplicates which need a human decision to identify which are new
records and which are old records in a new guise, it's much harder. If you
have Autonumber primary keys, they will be duplicated in the two databases; if
you have related tables with Long Integer foreign keys linked to the
Autonumber primary keys, you will need a lot of work to do the appends in the
right sequence. It all depends on the structure.