Linking on Field Data That Doesn't Exist?

[cabjork]

How's that for a subject line! I do a lot of reporting and linking on data sources with employee SS#'s. However, sometimes I have the need to link to a spreadsheet in which the first 5 digits of the SS masked. Is it somehow possible to create an concatenated formula field using the last 4 digits of the SS# and the first letter of the first and last names for each table prior to linking, e.g. "before reading records"? and then use my new concatenated string field for each data source as the basis for the table linking for the report?

 

[lbass]

If you could get both databases to work in the same command, you could use a union statement and avoid the linking altogether. I've never tried this with Excel and another type of database, so am unsure whether this is possible.

-LB