Is it possible to copy a table and re-name it as a different table

[Guest]

My database is for a youth group. It consists of students (who happen to be
in grades 6 through 12). At the end of last June, after all the local schools
have graduated, (which was my first June on this job), I changed their grades
(there is a field for the grade) by increasing it by one, so that grade 6's
become grade 7, etc. When I get to grade 12, it becomes grade 13. Well, in
the United States, there is no grade 13. And next month, the current 12th
graders will become grade 13, and the current graduates, "grade 13," will
become "grade 14." We don't use these records frequently, but I don't want
to totally eliminate these records in case an affiliated organization may
want the information for something. Or we may have reunions.

At any rate, what I thought to do was to copy my table, and re-name it to
designate it as "graduates only" or some such and delete all the records in
it except the grades 13 and up. This way they would be stored on my computer
and remain accessible, but not be part of the main table.

If this is possible, how do I actually go about copying and re-naming this
new "graduates only" table? Can I just use the copy/paste choices from the
Edit button on the toolbar? Or is it much more complicated than that? I do
not know coding, and there's no one at this non-profit (translation: "cheap"
or "no budget for I.T. support") office who knows Access. There is only one
other person who even uses it, and she knows less than I do.

All the MVP's here have been so helpful in the past that I hope someone can
help me again! Please?

In Peace,
Max

 

[Rick B]

You can copy and paste the table.

BUT: I don't think this is your solution. Anytime you find yourself moving
records from one table to another at the end of each year, you are probably
doing something wrong.

If it were me, I'd change it... After grade 12, update that field to
"graduated" or similar. Or, even better, put in the year that they
graduated. This will help you determine which years they were with you.

Another option would be to add a "graduated" checkbox that you can check and
then exclude those folks from your queries.

I have to wonder though if storing their grade is even the right way to do
it. I would say that you should store a constant like "year started school"
and then do date math to determine what grade they are currently in. The
problem with that is that students can fail, be held-back, or be promoted a
grade. Hopefully someone else out there has worked with school-type
databases and will have some additional thoughts.

 

[Guest]

Rick B., Thank you for your quick reply!

How? When I click on Edit/copy, where do I go to "paste" the clipboard
contents?

Why do you say this? Wouldn't most organizations have "members" who
essentially drop out of their system? Employers, Manufacturers, etc.? Do
they all really keep all records in the same database? Is that actually the
right way to do it?

I began using the grade 13 idea to enable me to easily exclude those
students from queries, but I want to make it easier for the future (I might
not be in this job forever!). OTOH, maybe the person who follows me will
know more about Access and be able to really fix this database, lol.

We also have a field for "Year of Graduation" because, um, well, I don't
really know, but sometimes we get one bit of information for a record and not
the other one. So I keep both fields because they've always been there!

Again in peace,
Max