Can I create contents of one field based on the contents of others?

I have a database of pc systems which we've tested and was wanting to generate a single text line to identify the individual pc

The single filed would contain data from the following fields
Job Number
CPU Type
CPU Speed
RAM
HDD size

eg
So the new field would contain "Job345-P3-1000-256-20"

Can this be done?

Yes it can be done, but is in the category very bad idea.

Much better than storing all these pieces of information into one field, is to just "calculate" (concatenate) each time you wish to display it.

I e, in a report, just do

=[Job Number] & "-" & [CPU Type] & "-" & [CPU Speed]...

to display it like you wish

I'll second what Roy's written. If you've already got the information present in your database, why store it again?

Nice one, that works fine :)

The main reason for doing this btw is to create an identifier that can be converted to a barcode using an activex plugin (which we already have)

Thanks

Paul