Referencing Tables from another database

[J. Trucking]

Hello All,

I had a quick question in regards to referencing data from a different
database. I work for a company whose entire work order database was
built for them about 6-7 years ago. The company who built it has
since disappeared and we are left on our own to alter/change it. I
don't want to tinker with it at all, but we would like to create a new
database for safety/production/etc. and I would like to reference
employee and customer data from the original work order database so I
dont have to keep updating employee/client information on all of the
databases. I would like to reference the "employee data" and "client
data" from the original database in my new database. I dont want to
change any data, I simply want to be able to insert the name of an
employee who already exists in the original database via a combo box.
Is linking tables the way to accomplish this? I think it is but would
like anyone's opinion on this.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

John

 

[KML]

Assuming your original database is one that supports linking with
Access, a linked table should be exactly what you're looking for.

For the combo box, setting the row source to the linked table and the
control source to a new table should do what you're looking for.

 

[J. Trucking]

Thanks for the quick response. I will start linking tables. I have a
related question. I would like to pull data from the work order
database on a regular basis in order to run statistics. I plan on
building queries and reports in my new database with reference to the
old database. I was just wondering if this will cause stability
issues in the work order (old) database. It is used by three users
all day to enter work order information. It was set up correctly as a
split database (front end, back end, etc.) and hasn't crashed in the
6-7 years it's been running. I looked at the size and the front end
is only a couple of megs and the back end for data is only about 25
megs. If I start making queries and reports in my new database, will
this cause corruption problems?

Thanks for the help,

John