recognizing there is already a record, before making a new one

F

FNORD

I realize there is probably a very easy answer to this, but I have looked in
my books... and on this site.... and honestly, I'm not even sure what to
search under. I'm pretty new to Access, but fairly familiar with other
database programs.

Ok anyhow, I've just created new forms in our database..... one of them
being a "call log". The problem I want to avoid however, is creating
duplicate records for these people. I need it to recognize that I'm typing
in a last name that is already in our database.... and give me the option to
select that record.

What do I have to do to enable this?
 
N

Nikos Yannacopoulos

The general answer is make the field indexed/no duplicates in your
table, so it won't accept dups anyway. In this particular case, though,
this won't work - and shouldn't work - with last names, unless you can
guarantee there will only ever be one call form a Mr or Mrs Smith, and
the first one to do so will exclude any other Smith till the end of time
(or databases). What's more, even if this was acceptable, it wouldn't
prevent typing mistakes!

My suggestion is you make a search form to search based on any or all of
(part of) last name, first name, address, telephone number etc, so when
you get a call you can search on criteria quickly and be presented with
a list of matches if any.

HTH,
Nikos
 
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