[dba-VB] Merge rows

Well, better brains then me will come up with the answer (are you there,
Charlotte).

What I would do is
1. Add an AutoNum field to the table - let that run overnight.  This is
good, as well you know. And you can make use of this from this point on.
2. set up the find-dupes wizard based on the natural key (!).
3. Extract the code from this.
4. put it into a module so that only those duplicate records are selected in
a recordset
5. loop through the recordset.
6. do a secondary recordset based on the natural key where the autonum is
not the same as the main record being looked at.
7. loop through the secondary records if found
8. update the main record.
9. delete the secondary record
10. move to next secondary record until none are left.
11. go to next main record.

Now, I am not saying that is the most efficient.  You may be able to do all
this in an SQL statement.

But, hey! At least I am trying to help.


Max


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: 21 September 2009 23:31
To: Discussion concerning Visual Basic and related programming issues.
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] Merge rows

 > Do you NOT overwrite existing data.
 > Or DO you ?

You do.  Basically if there are conflicts there is no way to discover which
is the right answer, and 
we are using the records to decide marketing stuff.  You can't have two
answers in the end anyway. 
In the end I "dedupe" (at the last step) to get rid of duplicates so ... it
would be a one time 
dedupe or dedupe every time you use the data.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Max Wanadoo wrote:
> Are you saying that the FIRST JohnColby record you encounter is therefore
> the MASTER and the rest JohnColby record's data gets to update the MASTER?
> 
> So, 
> Rec 1. John Colby likes Fish (at the time he might have liked fish)
> Rec 2. John Colby does not like fish (might have been asked some time
later,
> after a bad meal)
> 
> Which takes precedence?
> 
> Do you NOT overwrite existing data.
> Or DO you ?
> 
> Max

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