merging several different tables 1

[enderkun]

Where i work we have several different phone/address lists, such as prospectives, owners, vendors, etc. And what i am trying to do is to merge them all into one master sheet with just a few select fields (name, number, business, contact). But i think there is a problem because not all the tables are set up exactly the same. I was also wondering that if i made a master sheet and updated it with new entries, if it would update the corresponding table that it originated from or vice versa? Any suggestions would be helpful, thank you.

Kris

 

[willir]

This may be a moderate or big project depending...

Bascially, you have to import the data from each database into the consolidated database. The issues will be...
- different field names, field types, charactersistics. For example from one: LastName - text, 15 characters; the other - LName - text, 20 characters; ContactName - 25 characters with first + last name - this is the tough one to handle.
- different ways of addressing - you would think tracking addresses in a contact database was simple, but there are a zillion ways of doing it, and getting your three or more databases to consolidate to one may be one of the toughest aspects.
- duplication of names (searching for duplicate phone numbers work well here)

You can problably get the bulk of the import done through SQL (a lot easier), but if the fields are really messed, you might have to write a bit of code to sort through the mess.

Richard