Hi James, Thanks for the quick answer. The fields are already named as you specified. I just used # out of habit. I always thought a primary key field couldn't be blank. Can you elaborate a little more on the append query? I've done it a couple of times but that was over a year ago and I'm fuzzy. Will executing it tell me which records won't be added? Reason is because they all need to be there, we just need to reassign cat and/or item #'s to the duplicates. Thanks, Pam -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of James LaBorde Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 3:04 PM To: 'mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: [mso] Re: Access 2k :VSMail mx3 Pam, You can create a dual primary field. Just create a new table for now to do this. Create the table, using CatNum, and ItemNum rather than the pound sign. (The pound sign can cause other problems down the road.) In the design view highlight both these fields and click on the Primary Key icon. You will have a dual primary key enabled. Under CatNum, change the Required field to Yes. With this configuration, you will be allowed to have any number of the same category you want and any number of the same item you want, as long as both are not exact duplicates of another set. In order to check for existing duplicates, do an Append query from your existing table to your new table. When you execute it, you will get an error message telling you that ## of records won't be added due to key violations. Click Ok to this. You will now have a new table with no duplicate entries. If you need any help with this just holler. James La Borde South Western Federal Credit Union -----Original Message----- From: Pam [mailto:ltf01@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:56 PM To: MicrosoftOffice Subject: [mso] Access 2k :VSMail mx3 Hi all, I need to create a check point of some sort that consists of 2 fields, a cat# and item#. There will often be the same cat# or the same item# but there should never be a duplicate of the combination of both fields. Also, there may not always be an Item# but will always be a Cat#. Example: Cat# Item# 101 R2 101 R3 105 R2 105 R3 105 R6 170 190 Since this table is already populated with over 7000 entries I need to check for any already existing duplicates too. Is there a way to do this? Pam ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************