Indexing both FirstName and LastName fields together

[PaulaB]

I have a large database with many forms and subforms. My users can't always remember names previously typed in. If I set the "lastname" field to indexed - no duplicates, they won't be able to have both John Smith and Joe Smith in the table. Is there a way to set the table to index both FirstName and LastName? Or is there a better way for my users to know that the record already exists?

Thanks

 

[MichaelRed]

A bit skimpy on some details, but the simple answer is you may have compound indicies (e.g. LastName & FirstName). In any real db, this WILL not be possible as a UNIQUE index. You will need a field (or set of fields) which are 'guarnteed' to be unique for a Primary Key type on index. For perople, this is most commonly their SSN, although it is possible to use a modified soundex function to generate a unique Key based on the Names. A large body of info on the development of soundex indices is available for the English language names, but I have not seen much regarding other languages (but also never had occassion to really search).

MichaelRed
mred@att.net

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over