Why are the individual records out of order?

[Guest]

I have been entering records in a database, and saving it when am done for a
session. When I reopen the database, I find the records are not in the order
as entered them originally. For my purposes, the order that I enter the
records is extremely important.

Why are there changes from the way I originally entered the record?
Thanks, Flip

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Flip

Access tables are "buckets o' data", with no inherent order. Unless your
table structure includes a field on which you plan to sort, Access neither
cares nor bothers to keep track of "your" order.

Do you have a primary key field on the table? Do you have a DateEntered
field on the table?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[gls858]

Flip

Access tables are "buckets o' data", with no inherent order. Unless your
table structure includes a field on which you plan to sort, Access neither
cares nor bothers to keep track of "your" order.

Do you have a primary key field on the table? Do you have a DateEntered
field on the table?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

To expand a bit on Jeff's advice, you need to create a query with the
desired fields and then select the sort order you desire to display
the data.

gls858

 

[Guest]

If the OP wants them in the order in which they were entered, this will only
work if he adds either an Autonumber field or event better, a WhenEntered
field that has Now() as the Default Value.

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't even trust an autonumber as the aren't garunteed to be sequential.
A default with Now() is a great idea as long as the records are being
manually entered one at a time. If entered by something like an import of
Excel data they still might have the same date/time stamp. If more than one
user is adding records there is always that slight possibility that more than
one record could be added at the same time.

 

[gls858]

If the OP wants them in the order in which they were entered, this will only
work if he adds either an Autonumber field or event better, a WhenEntered
field that has Now() as the Default Value.

True. I was assuming they were entered in such a way that one of the
fields could be sorted to provide the same order,such as alpha or customer
number or such. A bad assumption on my part.

gls858

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Perfect! You've just identified a requirement (not an assumption)<g>

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't even trust an autonumber as the aren't garunteed

to be sequential.

Well they are garunteed to be sequential, it's just that it doesn't
always work :~). Similarly, a problem with Now() is that it
depends on the date/time on each computer - which may be
different, or even wrong.

(david)

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Well they are garunteed to be sequential

Unless they're set to random (which will happen if the database is
replicated)

Similarly, a problem with Now() is that it
depends on the date/time on each computer - which may be
different, or even wrong.

But at least it will be consistent for that machine! <not good, I'll agree,
in a multi-user situation>

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Sorry: meant to include a smiley in this post (or at least indicate that I
was being picky, not disagreeing with what you were saying)