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Remove Duplicates based on Date Added

I have an Access Table named tbl_TestAll that I need to delete duplicates based on the Date Added date.

DtA is the Date Added field

The column names are liks such.
Cha, Allo, Tar, Cons, Opt, Des, Pct, Len, Cur, Com, DtA, For, Mar.

The rows are as such:

Row 1 Ca1, Allo1, Tar2, Cons1, Opt 1, Des1, Pct 3, Len1, Cur2, Com 2, 7/14//2001, For1, Mar1
Rpw 2 Ca1, Allo1, Tar3, Cons1, Opt 1, Des2, Pct 4, Len2, Cur3, Com 2, 9/14/2001, For1, Mar1

So basically, Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI are duplicated in both rows.

I need a query that will delete Row 1, and keep Row 2 based on the latest date.

Kevin Cross

mato01,

In MS Access, it may be easiest to INSERT the rows you want into a new table, DELETE all rows, then put back the rows you want. You can try once you have done the insert into new table to DELETE where there is no match, so guess that is the key...

So, what I would try is to build a query that gets you the MAX DtA column that corresponds to Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI combinations.

SELECT Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI, MAX(DtA) MAX_DtA
FROM tbl_TestAll
GROUP BY Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI

Open in new window

If that looks like what you want, you can then JOIN that back to your original data, you may have to put it in an intermediate query first, but try:

SELECT t1.*
FROM tbl_TestAll AS t1
JOIN (
   SELECT Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI, MAX(DtA) MAX_DtA
   FROM tbl_TestAll
   GROUP BY Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI
) AS tm
   ON tm.Cha = t1.Cha
   AND tm.Allo = t1.Allo
   AND tm.Cons = t1.Cons
   AND tm.Opt = t1.Opt
   AND tm.For = t1.For
   AND tm.MarI = t1.MarI
   AND tm.MAX_Dta = t1.Dta
;

Open in new window

That should get you the records you want. Let me know if you have any questions from there as it is just a straight-forward, INSERT and DELETE operation.

And I can't remember if this works in MS Access, but you can try:

DELETE t1.*
FROM tbl_TestAll AS t1
JOIN (
   SELECT Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI, MAX(DtA) MAX_DtA
   FROM tbl_TestAll
   GROUP BY Cha, Allo, Cons, Opt, For, MarI
) AS tm
   ON tm.Cha = t1.Cha
   AND tm.Allo = t1.Allo
   AND tm.Cons = t1.Cons
   AND tm.Opt = t1.Opt
   AND tm.For = t1.For
   AND tm.MarI = t1.MarI
   AND tm.MAX_Dta <> t1.Dta
;

Open in new window

The change is not equal Dta.

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Milewskp

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