find and replace situation

  • Thread starter Thread starter JWCrosby
  • Start date Start date
J

JWCrosby

I have a text field for college names. Unfortunately, our data entry people
have been inconsistent in how they enter school names, making select queries
a bit problematic. For instance, "George Fox University" may have been
entered as
George Fox University, or
George Fox, or
George Fox U.

I want to make them all consistent, so all the appropriate records have
"George Fox University." I know I can do a find and replace on the "U." and
change it to "University", but how do I add "University" to the field that
only has "George Fox" in it? If I find "George Fox" and replace it with
"George Fox University" won't it create a "George Fox University University"
if the original field had "George Fox University" in it?

So, what I'm asking is how do I query to find those records that have
"George Fox" and "George Fox" only in that field?

Thanks in advance.

Jerry
 
Use "George Fox" as criteria. Do not use the Like function and then it must
match exactly.
 
I have a text field for college names. Unfortunately, our data entry people
have been inconsistent in how they enter school names, making select queries
a bit problematic. For instance, "George Fox University" may have been
entered as
George Fox University, or
George Fox, or
George Fox U.

I want to make them all consistent, so all the appropriate records have
"George Fox University." I know I can do a find and replace on the "U." and
change it to "University", but how do I add "University" to the field that
only has "George Fox" in it? If I find "George Fox" and replace it with
"George Fox University" won't it create a "George Fox University University"
if the original field had "George Fox University" in it?

So, what I'm asking is how do I query to find those records that have
"George Fox" and "George Fox" only in that field?

Thanks in advance.

Jerry
Click to expand...

I would CERTAINLY recommend that you do as suggested elsethread as a start -
but then take the next step!

Create a Table of univerities, with *one record* per university.

Rather than making your data entry people type the name, give them a Form with
a Combo Box control where they can *select* the name from the table, and store
a UniversityID in the table. This will prevent typos such as the above (or
George Foc University or any of the innumerable other variants) from polluting
your tables.
 
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