filtering for just the first instance

[Richard G]

i'd like to try to develop on from the question and answer below

Can you tell us the field types?
Assuming that Dated and Timed are DateTime fields, you could use
SELECT [Index No], Dated, Timed
FROM YourTable
WHERE Dated + Timed =
(SELECT Min(Dated + Timed)
FROM YourTable as tmp
WHERE tmp.[Index No] = YourTable.[Index No])
'====================================================
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
'====================================================

I have a table that includes the fields Index No, Dated and Timed
The index number field contains both unique and repaeated data

When the table is sorted by Dated and Timed I'd like to be able to just have
the first instance of each actual Index No to work with. Is there a
relatively easy method

Thanks
Richard

Is it possible to change the field Index number so that the search could be
for a particular length of text string that might occur anywhere in the
field. I have yet to try to determine how long the text string might have to
be to give a sensible number of alternatives

Thanks
richard