Making big changes to tables and column names

[bestbapu]

I've inherited an Access Application with many tables, forms, reports,
querries, and macros.

I want to change nearly every table name as well as many column names.

What is the most efficient way to go about doing this?

TIA for your help,
Ed.

 

[Jeanette Cunningham]

Hi,
When I want to do something like this, I use a utility called Find And
Replace.
You can buy this from Rick Fisher's website http://www.rickworld.com.
There are other utilities that do a similar thing.
If you did a search on this newsgroup, you would find them all.

Jeanette Cunningham

 

[bestbapu]

Jennette,

Thank you. I'll give this a try.

Ed.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I've inherited an Access Application with many tables, forms, reports,
querries, and macros.

I want to change nearly every table name as well as many column names.

Why? What's the problem with the current table and field names?

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I've inherited an Access Application with many tables, forms, reports,
querries, and macros.

I want to change nearly every table name as well as many column names.

BTW you may wish to consider Tony's Table and Field Naming Conventions
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/tablefieldnaming.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[BeWyched]

I agree with Tony - why change.

Changing is a potential minefield. You will need to review all modules,
queries, forms and reports to ensure that any references to the old tables
etc. are also changed.

I haven't used the Find and Replace application mentioned by the previous
contributor so can't comment on that, other than to suggest caution. If the
application does work through modules etc., then there is a danger than
references might be changed in error. e.g. if you Find/Replace, say, 'abc'
with 'xyz' to reflect the new table name then you will get mega problems with
any other reference (variables etc.) called 'abc'.

Live with what you've got.

BW

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

BTW you may wish to consider Tony's Table and Field Naming Conventions
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/tablefieldnaming.htm

My naming conventions produce, usually, very unique field names so
it's very easy to do find and, if necessary, replaces. Except that in
one Location table I had forgotten to put in the leading l (letter L)
in the Inactive field name. My brain saw the capital letter I (i)
and missed the lower case L. (What was Inactive should've been
lInactive.) So now I had to locate all occurrences of the word
inactive in the MDB. This proved to be a very interesting task as I
like using an inactive flag on lots of tables.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[David W. Fenton]

Live with what you've got.

I generally agree with that.

However, I've embarked on ambitious renaming projects in many cases
when I needed to expand and enhance an existing application.
Bringing the objects into conformity with my naming conventions is a
necessary refactoring step before I can go onto building something
new.

Second, if it's somebody else's app, then this process is a good way
for me to familiarize myself with the existing app's structure.

So, don't do it just to clean things up.

But *do* do it if you are going to do significant work in building
new functionality.