linked tables in relationships

[Cathy]

Hi!
I need a little (a lot?) help. I'm working in a database that someone else
built but I've been maintaining for a while. Now I want to add a field to a
table in our database. The tables are linked in relationships. What is the
best way to unlink these tables, make my changes and then relink? (I have
already made a copy and have been working in that so I don't blow up the real
thing.)

 

[John W. Vinson]

Hi!
I need a little (a lot?) help. I'm working in a database that someone else
built but I've been maintaining for a while. Now I want to add a field to a
table in our database. The tables are linked in relationships. What is the
best way to unlink these tables, make my changes and then relink? (I have
already made a copy and have been working in that so I don't blow up the real
thing.)

Open the Relationships window (the icon looks like three datasheets connected
by lines). Select the *join line* between the tables - not the table icon
itself! - and press the Delete key.

Change your table structure, open the relationships window again, and drag the
primary key fieldname from the "one" table to the foreign key fieldname in the
"many". Doublecheck that you have the right fields in the relationship data
popup window, and check Enforce Referential Integrity.

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Cathy]

That's how I originally tried to unlink the tables but it wouldn't let me.
Is that because I copied the database and saved it in a different location?

 

[John W. Vinson]

That's how I originally tried to unlink the tables but it wouldn't let me.
Is that because I copied the database and saved it in a different location?

That shouldn't do it. One question though: is this a split database with the
tables in a backend file and the application in a different .mdb file? If so,
you must open the backend database to change the relationships (or for that
matter the tables).

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Cathy]

Yes, that might be the case. So will your original directions work if I'm in
the backend files?

 

[John W. Vinson]

Yes, that might be the case. So will your original directions work if I'm in
the backend files?

Should... but they will emphatically *not* work if you're in the frontend of a
split app.

John W. Vinson [MVP]