Sorting Tables

[SteveF]

Is there any way of sorting tables? I add and subtract products all the time, and I want my new products to appear in the table in an order that is logical according to what I'm trying to do.

I can get it right in Queries in order to produce the reports and queies I need, but I can't see how to re-sort a table. I'm beginning to think that tables are not meant to be re-sorted, and that would be pretty bad news, so any pointers appreciated.

 

[boblarson]

Access does not store the data in any meaningful way. Pat Hartman says it best in this thread:
http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=158017

when she says:

Tables are UNORDERED sets!!! and that is that. Just because it looks like Jet "always" returns records in pk order doesn't make it so. Two things lead people to that assumption.

1. When a database is compacted, Access reorders all tables into primary key sequence. This has the effect of a clustered index (which Jet does not specifically support).
2. They are using such a small set of data that it hasn't exceeded 2k which means that it is retrieved all at once and in whatever order it was stored in or resequenced to if the db has been compacted.

If you want sorting, use queries.

 

[SteveF]

Thanks for that. I had to change my thinking there but the form/sort query approach has done the trick for me.