Compare two lists of names and extract matches

[sdamaged99]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to access so would appreciate you making this as simple as you can!

My boss has given me two lists of names comprising of forename, surname and DOB

He wants to compare the names from one list onto a new list using surname and forename first, pulling out any matches

He then wants to compare those new names (but also including DOB) to make it a more accurate match

Does anyone have any ideas on how i can accomplish this?

Many thanks for your help

Barry

 

[JamesMcS]

Sounds like a fairly simple query.... but then they always do. Is there one table that has more records than the other?

Put both tables into a new query and link the common fields together (more links mean more accurate matches, i.e. if you only want to match on surname, drag the surname field from table A on to surname in table B and so on). Double click on the link, it'll open a window asking you to specify if you want to show only matching records, or to show all records in one table and matching records in the other. If it was me I'd drag down all the fields from both tables so they're all displayed in the results of the query, then double click on the links and tell it to show all records from the larger table and only matching records from the smaller table. Run the query, you'll see all the records from the main table, and where there are matches in the second table there will be data in the fields. Where there aren't mtaches, they'll be blank.

Cheers

James

 

[sdamaged99]

Hi James,

That seems to work pretty well, ill see how i get on with it

thanks

Barry

 

[JamesMcS]

No worries, if it works don't forget to click the scales on my post If it doesn't let me know!