Move existing data to another field- use macros?

[Jolene Updike]

Hello-
I'm trying to streamline a really old and poorly structured database, and
I'm trying to avoid some tedium-- I have 2 fields that I want to get rid of
by combining the data seperated by a "-" into a new field. There must be a
way to do this without manually copying and pasting the thousands of
records...

 

[Stephen English]

You could do one of following
1. do it using an Access query if you can access your old database from Access
2. export the data to Excel, combine your fields and import into your new
Access db
3. write some code to read a record from old db, manipulate fields and write
to ACcess db

Regards
Stephen

 

[Steve Schapel]

Jolene,

Make (and run) an Update Query, to update the "new field" to the
equivalent of...
[FirstOldField] & "-" & [SecondOldField]

Then you can delete the old fields

However, I would be cautious - you say the old database is "poorly
structured", but, on the face of it the idea of concatenating two pieces
of information into one field is in itself a poor structure. Post back
with more information about the data if you are interested in advice on
this aspect.