Very basic question about pasting data

[Skirrow]

Hi there, and sorry for such a stupid question..

I'm just making the change from excel to access for my business.

Most things seem straightforward but I can't seem to paste a single value into multiple records.

For instance, I have a couple of hundred records. I add a new field. The first 70 records all have the same value (5) for this field. In excel I would put 5 in the top cell, copy it, select all the other cells and hit paste. Doesn't seem to work in access, just paste a single one at a time.

Best I can come up with is to copy and paste 1. Then copy and paste those 2, then those 4 and so on. This does the job for 200 records but I' wouldn't facy it for 20,000....

Is there a simple answer or is it a VBA job?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[ColinEssex]

You can import / link to the external data and Access creates the table for you.

File>>>>>Get External Data>>>>>>

Col

 

[GaryPanic]

Whoa.....

Access and Excel are diffeent animals - even though they have that same feel...


right ot get to do what you want you need an update qry

ok qry - hope you have played with these ..
right in query's slect a couple of fields from your table and the one you want to update - good now up on the top their is ! and to the left of this a button this changes your query to and update one - and this will update your column

play around with these functions - (make sure you have a copy of the data - in case it goes tits up )

 

[kabz]

Whoa.....

Access and Excel are diffeent animals - even though they have that same feel...

yeah its like a "Donkey and a Horse"....i recently was also ,moving records from Excel to Access..OMG..it gave me hell but i managed by just doing the importing of External Data..

 

[GaryPanic]

and if you mix them you end up with an ass

 

[kabz]

and if you mix them you end up with an ass

and the bad part is that the ass is sterile so you cant even make more DBMS from it

 

[GaryPanic]

I might of got my ass's mixed up with my mules - but you got the gist...
g

 

[kabz]

I might of got my ass's mixed up with my mules - but you got the gist...
g

yeah...right

 

[Skirrow]

Cheers fellas!

Been playing with queries, not update queries yet but that sounds like the answer I'm looking for.

Thanks again,
Dave

 

[GaryPanic]

take you time onthese 20 min's reading and looking at these will save you hours later on....(from experience )- also use the wizards whereever poss - and again take your time - take a good 10-20 mins looking at them - digesting them, these will do most of your reports for you

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There is a SHORT answer to your question, still requires some typing.

The CTRL/apostrophe (I think) will copy the same value as is displayed in the corresponding columm one row up. This ONLY works in a displayed datasheet and is not an SQL function. It is a displayed datasheet function.