Q: comparing identical tables.

[david de beer]

The inevitable accident happened. Some group filled the
work copy of the database, while other started filling up
the master. Now there is double not identical data in both,
that has to be combined somehow.
If Access can use a union on two databases it might be done
by hand in one table, still a hell of a job itself. But,
can that be done, and then, how?
Or does someone have a ready to go query to (help) do the
job, leaving only the most complete of each two similar
records?
As you noticed, Access is not my daily database, so please
explain as explicit possible.
TIA
David

 

[KARL]

I would start by making another copy of both tables just
in case.
Based on the data you will need to do several update
queries. You want the record information with the latest
dates and you also want any data that is null in the other
table.
Build a query, several if necessary, to compare every
field in the database that would have been updated. Use
these queries to build a list of records that are
different by making a table that consist of your key field
(s).