Access Table & Form - HELP

[Guest]

When we enter information in a form the table in access sometimes throws it
in other places and we cannot figure out why. We need it to go in order
because we use the next number and I cannot make it a primary key because
some of the numbers are left blank. We use this to track building permits
and it was fine until awhile ago when it started throwing other to diffrenet
spots. So if any one can help please respond, it is also not an update
problem. Thank You for your time, Anthony Risteff

 

[Norman Yuan]

As a user of the Access, you should not worry whether inputted records look
as sorted in particular order or not. More importantly, as user, you should
not directly open the data table. User is supposed to deal with data through
designed forms, not only for inputting data, but also viewing data.

Imagine things this way: table(s) is like a warehouse, form is the warehouse
manager, user as customer who want to store/retrieve data from thr
warehouse: the customer is not going into (nor is allowed to) the warehouse
to look for his stuff; and even he can get in, he does not know where to
find his stuff, he must ask the warehouse manager for storing/retrieving on
his behalf; the manager knows how the stuff is sorted/grouped and can get to
them easily.

So, do not look at the table and worry data not in certain order. Design the
user form(s) properly to make sure that data is presented as desired (
sorting/grouping...).

 

[Guest]

The data in the Form is not right and I need it to go in order because when
we need the next number for a new building permit we look at the last record
in the form but the data in the form is throwing it into different spots. So
if you have any other information that might help, thank you for your help.

Anthony

 

[John Vinson]

When we enter information in a form the table in access sometimes throws it
in other places and we cannot figure out why. We need it to go in order
because we use the next number and I cannot make it a primary key because
some of the numbers are left blank. We use this to track building permits
and it was fine until awhile ago when it started throwing other to diffrenet
spots. So if any one can help please respond, it is also not an update
problem. Thank You for your time, Anthony Risteff

If your Form is bound directly to the table, this is expected
behavior. A table HAS NO ORDER - it's a "bucket" of data, and Access
will store new records wherever there is room; this will often but
will not reliably be at the "end" of the table. In addition, if you
don't specify a sort order, the order in which records will be
displayed on the Form may not be the same as the order in which they
are stored on disk.

The solution is to have a field in your table which is in strictly
ascending order; this could be an Autonumber or a time stamp field
defaulting to Now() to store the moment the record was created. If you
base your Form on a Query sorting the data by this field, it will be
sorted chronologically.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
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