Did I mention they tied one of my hands behind my back? I can't get VB. I want to thank everyone that offered all the valuable help. As always, a problem around you guys is a great learning experience!
The problem (the many to many relationship) came up due to feature creep five days before I was supposed to have the db operation. I was looking for a hack that wouldn't force me to redo the tables. This project came up because IP wanted to combine four databases into one. They didn't want anything they didn't already have, they just wanted one db to manage. Three weeks later while I am demonstrating the product and making sure I put in all the queries and reports they wanted, they changed the basic parameters on me. I deleted all the queries, reports and most of the forms and broke down all of the tables and built it they way it should have been built the first time. I should have just done it that way to start with. Live and learn. Wrinkled duct tape a sure sign of poor workmanship. Doug --- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just use VBA to do this. It will work fine. > > Tsk, tsk on Jim for not answering this one. > > At 04:57 PM 8/14/2003 -0700, you wrote: > >Sorry about this off-topic request, but I am in a > bind > >at work and need some help. > > > >The Question involves MS Access XP/2000. > > > >A little background: > >I am creating a database for Intelectual Property. > >98% of their press starts with a process called > >Disclosure. The Inventors meet with a panel of > >experts and lawyers and introduce their ideas. The > >experts evaluate the idea and see if they know of > >existing work in the area, and evaluate science and > >soundness of the idea. The lawyers take notes and > >follow-up with searches for prior-art. Meaning, > does > >someone already have a patent on a idea close > enough > >to make the new idea not worth pursuing. A > disclosure > >may be presented by one inventor or a team of > >inventors. Often during the course of a disclosure > a > >group of inventors may be directed to other experts > >that would be valuable team members. > > > >Each Disclosure is assigned a unique number in the > for > >of YYYY-NNN, where YYYY is the current year, and YY > is > >the sequential number in order that the disclosure > >happened. Meaning, that the 16th disclosure in > 2003, > >would have a disclosure number 2003-16. This > number > >indicates the file number, and if the idea pans > out, > >will become the license number. This system has > >existed in paper form for decades. IP (Intelectual > >Property) is picking up, and they want me to put it > >into a datase. > > > >The Problem: > >Each disclosure number is unique. The inventors > are > >kept in a table with all of their information. One > >Disclosure can have one or many Inventors. > > > >I need a way to select Inventors from a Lookup > >form/query/table and combine them all into a single > >text field in a record in the disclosure table. > > > >One of the reasons we need to use a lookup to the > >Inventors table is that we want the data to be > >uniform, searchable, and consistant. There are > >others, but I won't bore you. Data entry errors > are > >justification enough. > > > >As far as I can tell, MS Access never conceived of > >this need. While I'll be the first to admit I am > not > >a MS Access guru, I do know it better than the > average > >bear. > > > >I have wasted two days messing around with clunky > and > >largely unsuccessful work arounds. I cannot > believe > >there isn't an AppendField object. There has to be > a > >better way to add data to a field without opening > the > >field and typing the data in. My best effort so > far > >has me filling a table, exporting the contents, and > >importing the data, and it fails without rhyme or > >reason half the time. Timing issues on when the > table > >is locked no doubt. With more people using the > >database, it wil only fail more often. > > > >I haven't done VB since VB3 that is worth talking > >about. (I did write a program that even Exxon hands > >couldn't crash with that though! Geeze, I soaked > them > >for it too. It was great.) > > > >Anyway, that is the long (very long) and short of > it. > >I want a way to make to multiple selections from > one > >table and combine them into one field in another > >table, comma separated, if at all possible. I KNOW > >this is possible. I am certain it is fairly > simple. > >I am also certain that I will NEVER find it by > myself. > > > >Please help. I would like to be able to wake up > anf > >go to sleep without coming up with some Rube > Goldberg > >workaround evey three minutes that I can only check > >when I get to work. Besides, I have a host of > other > >stuff I am also supposed to be doing. > > > >Any help is much appreciated! Again, sorry about a > >Micro$loth question, on this list, but I am at > wit's > >end. Save it. I know what you are thinking. Just > >answer my plea!!!! > > > >===== > >Warmest Regards, > > > >Doug Riddle > >http://www.dougriddle.com > >http://fossile-project.sourceforge.net/ > >http://www.libranet.com > >-- "Firearms are second only to the Constitution in > importance; they are > >the Peoples' Liberty Teeth." - George Washington -- > > > > > >__________________________________ > >Do you Yahoo!? > >Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site > design software > >http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com > > > >_______________________________________________ > >General mailing list > >[email protected] > >http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > > > --- > Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Puryear Information Technology, LLC > <http://www.puryear-it.com> > Providing expertise in the management, integration, > and > security of Windows and UNIX systems, networks, and > applications. > > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net ===== Warmest Regards, Doug Riddle http://www.dougriddle.com http://fossile-project.sourceforge.net/ http://www.libranet.com -- "Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the Peoples' Liberty Teeth." - George Washington -- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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