15-20 years ago i played around in a small way with an Access Database, but the passing of time means I’ve totally forgotten how they work….

What I need to do is find a way to quickly and easily type in a name and see if it appears in the database ( could be around 1000 names in it )

what Ive got in mind is a box where i would type in a name and if all or part of that name was in the database then it would appear in full.

i.e If I type Paul …. and there were 5 different Pauls in the list then they would all appear in a box or list somewhere….. maybe almost like an autofill function where the options appear and get narrowed down as you type in the word(s) … so as in the Example if I typed just Paul, then all 5 woul appear but if i typed Paul Smith then just paul smith would appear, alongwith supplementary field like address etc

i have a spreadsheet that has all the info in it ….. but I dont really want to keep finding names in it …. so i was wonderig if something could be done with a database screen with a box where i enter the name i’m looking for….. it searches the data from the spreadsheet and displays relevant fins in a box below the input box?

is this something that i could do with a little guidance ??
Any help appreciated

Unless Access supports what you want out of the box (it might) you’re into actual programming territory.

Your use case sounds like exactly what Access was created for though.

You maybe over thinking this.

Why not just stick with a spreadsheet and put a filter across the top.
Then just filter matches against”contains” Peter*Smith

Or even, use the function vlookup on list, to match against the names you want

Excel filter – type Paul into filter text box in 201x to reduce list to *Paul* then pick the one you want

if you can’t get the Excel to work then you can do it in Access but you have to use code afaik. There is an example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryjHaFNebhU. There may be a way of doing it without coding but I’ve never really looked

If you are having a hassle with the Access version then give me a shout. It’s very straightforward if you use it all the time

Thanks for the input fellas, – leffeboy – I had a quick look and thats pretty much what I had in mind!

The bit I didnt mention is that the database or spreadsheet would be used by a couple of people with limited PC knowledge so need to be very simplistic.

I remember many moons ago I had a frontpage ‘form’ on a database that just contained a few boxes to input data … all the data and workings were ‘behind the scenes’ as it were

Apparently no database geeks have answered yet, so here goes:

Please don’t use the words “database” and “Access” in the same sentence.

The bit I didnt mention is that the database or spreadsheet would be used by a couple of people with limited PC knowledge so need to be very simplistic

Yep, that’s what I thought. The example I posted appears to be a little incomplete from the comments on that page but shout if you want to try it and I’ll help.

Please don’t use the words “database” and “Access” in the same sentence.

🙂

How would you add names to and maintain existing entries in the access database?

Pretty easy to filter columns in Excel – if this is all you need to do I’d stick with that.

Please don’t use the words “database” and “Access” in the same sentence.

Nothing wrong with Access if you accept its limitations. It’s a perfectly good database if you run a small shop and want to save your customer data, for example.

Access has its uses. This is one of them. Exactly what it was designed for.