For Microsoft Access

Subjects to be covered

Duplication

Create the duplicates query

1. On the Create tab, in the Other group, click Query Wizard.

2. In the New Query dialog box, click Find Duplicates Query Wizard, and then click OK.

If an alert message appears and tells you that the feature is not installed, click Yes to install the wizard.

3. In the list of tables, select the table that contains your duplicate data, and then click Next.

4. In the list of available fields, select only the field or fields that contain duplicate information. If you use the
Customers table, add only the Company Name, Address, and City fields, because those are the only fields that
contain character-for-character matching values. Click Next.

 NOTE    If the fields that you add in this step do not contain character-for-character matches, the query
might not return any results.

5. In the next list of available fields, select the field or fields that contain the data that you want to inspect or
update, or those that contain data that can help you distinguish duplicate from non-duplicate records. If you use
the Customers table, you add the Contact Name and Phone fields, because the data in those fields can help you
find the duplicate values and possibly identify why the values were entered. Click Next.

6. Accept the suggested name (Find duplicates for Customers) or enter your own name, and then click
Finish to run the query. If you used the Customers table, you see this result:

COMPANY ADDRESS CITY CONTACT NAME PHONE

NAME
Fourth Coffee Calle Smith Mexico City Julian Price (7) 555-2126
2
Fourth Coffee Calle Smith Mexico City Reshma Patel (7) 555-2233
2

7. When you created the Customers table, you might have noticed more than two duplicate records (the table
contains four). You don't see the other duplicates because the values in the Address field don't match character-
for-character. You can modify the query to return values that partially match — the next set of steps explains how.
 Drop down lists

Create a lookup column in Datasheet View

By default, when you open a table, it opens in Datasheet view. You can add a lookup column by clicking Lookup
Column in the Fields & Columns group on the Datasheet tab. Doing so starts the Lookup Wizard, which leads you
through the process of creating the lookup column.

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Open.

2. In the Open dialog box, select and open the database.

3. In the Navigation Pane, double-click the table in which you want to create the lookup column — this opens
the table in Datasheet view.

4. On the Datasheet tab, in the Fields & Columns group, click Lookup Column.

The Lookup Wizard starts.

5. On the first page of the Lookup Wizard, indicate whether you want to base the lookup column on the values
in a table or a query, or on a list of values that you type.

The most common type of lookup column is one that displays values looked up from a related table or
query.

6. Click Next, and then follow the instructions to complete the wizard. For more information about completing
the wizard, see the section Using the Lookup Wizard.

When you click Finish, a lookup column is created whose field properties are set based on the choices you made in
the Lookup Wizard.
Reports

Queries

Yes/No

Searching across tables