Hi Mike,
You can either go with a text data type, as John Vinson suggested, or if you
want to use a numeric field (long integer suggested), you could possible add
another column that indicates the equality (ie. =, <, or >). I imagine with
carbon dating that there may not be too many cases where the = operator could
be used with any degree of certainty.
You could use an update query to update the value of a new column, based on
the equality symbol used. So for example, you might start by importing the
data into a field set as a text data type. Use an update query to update the
new equality field with the value calculated from:
Left$([YourTextDataTypeFieldName], 1).
Use the Mid$ function to update a numberic CalendricalYears field. Something
like this when viewing the query in SQL View:
UPDATE YourTableName SET
YourTableName.Equality = Left$([YourTextDataTypeFieldName],1),
YourTableName.CalendricalYears = Mid$([YourTextDataTypeFieldName],2);
Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
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