Delete Query (97)

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I am having difficulties creating a delete query where I have two tables, tblPayments and tblOriginalData, and want to delete records from the former, IF the record is older than 2003 AND there is a matching fk_recordnumber in the latter.

The table structures:
tblPayments
pkey
fk_recordnumber
strType
curAmount
dtmDate

tblOriginalData
pkey
fk_recordnumber
curAmount
curMed
curPHA

I need to delete all records from tblPayments where the date (dtmDate) is before Jan 1, 2003 AND there is a matching fk_recordnumber in tblOriginalData.

I created a query using the wizard which returned the following SQL:

DELETE tblPayments.*, tblPayments.dtmDate
FROM tblPayments LEFT JOIN tblOriginalData ON tblPayments.fk_RecordNumber= tblOriginalData.fk_RecordNumber
WHERE (((tblPayments.dtmDate)<#1/1/2003#));

If I VIEW the query results, it shows the correct records to be deleted, but when I RUN the query I get an error message stating "Operation must be an updatable query".

I also modified the join in the query query which resulted in the following SQL statement:

DELETE tblPayments.*, tblPayments.dtmDate
FROM tblPayments, tblOriginalData
WHERE (((tblPayments.dtmDate)<#1/1/2003# And [tblOriginalData]![fk_RecordNumber]=[tblPayments]![fk_RecordNumber]));

Still get the same error message. Is there anything obvious that I am missing?

Thanks,

Ken

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AFAIK you should make sure that the fields fk_recordnumber are defined as primary keys in both tables, then define the link between in the relationships window.

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Patt,

Thanks. I tried setting the relationship to the foreign key field (recordnumber) with no success. I even used a make table query to create a table of the records needing to be deleted, then create a delete query using the newly created table and the tblPayments table, relating to the pkey (a primary field) in both, and continue to get the same error. gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! !!

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Patt,

Thanks. I tried setting the relationship to the foreign key field (recordnumber) with no success. I even used a make table query to create a table of the records needing to be deleted, then create a delete query using the newly created table and the tblPayments table, relating to the pkey (a primary field) in both, and continue to get the same error. gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! !!

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AFAIK you should make sure that the fields fk_recordnumber are defined as primary keys in both tables, then define the link between in the relationships window.

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Although there must be a cleaner and kewler way of deleting these records, I ended up using an update query and then a delete query. I added a field to the first table, updated the new field with string if it was to be deleted, then ran a delete query for all records that contained that string.

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I haven’t tested this but I would expect it to work if you used a subquery something like this.

DELETE tblPayments.*
FROM tblPayments
WHERE (((tblPayments.dtmDate)<#1/1/2003#)  and ( tblPayments.fk_RecordNumber in
(Select tblOriginalData.fk_RecordNumber from tblOriginalData))); 

edited by John to correct my mistakes with cutting and pasting

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John,

Thanks! I will give it test!

Ken

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John,

Thanks! I will give it test!

Ken

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I haven’t tested this but I would expect it to work if you used a subquery something like this.

DELETE tblPayments.*
FROM tblPayments
WHERE (((tblPayments.dtmDate)<#1/1/2003#)  and ( tblPayments.fk_RecordNumber in
(Select tblOriginalData.fk_RecordNumber from tblOriginalData))); 

edited by John to correct my mistakes with cutting and pasting

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Although there must be a cleaner and kewler way of deleting these records, I ended up using an update query and then a delete query. I added a field to the first table, updated the new field with string if it was to be deleted, then ran a delete query for all records that contained that string.

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