Concatenate Union Query to remove duplicate records

[ittechguy]

I'm having some issues with a union query which contains duplicate records. The SQL for the query is below:

SELECT tblCustomer.OrganizationFK, tblCustomer.ShopNameFK, tblCustomer.OfficeSymFK, tblCustomer.LastName, tblCustomer.FirstName, tblFacilityMgr.BuildingFK, tblRooms.RoomsPK, tblBuilding.BuildingName, tblRooms.RoomName, tblSecOptions.SecName, tblCabinet.CabinetName, tblEquipment.CabinetFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentNameFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentBrandFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentNetworkTypeFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentIP, tblEquipment.SerialNumFROM tblSecOptions INNER JOIN (((tblBuilding INNER JOIN (tblCustomer INNER JOIN tblFacilityMgr ON tblCustomer.CustomerPK = tblFacilityMgr.CustomerFK) ON tblBuilding.BuildingPK = tblFacilityMgr.BuildingFK) INNER JOIN tblRooms ON tblBuilding.BuildingPK = tblRooms.BuildingFK) INNER JOIN (tblCabinet LEFT JOIN tblEquipment ON tblCabinet.CabinetPK = tblEquipment.CabinetFK) ON tblRooms.RoomsPK = tblCabinet.RoomsFK) ON tblSecOptions.SecOptionPK = tblRooms.SecOptionFK
UNION SELECT tblCustomer.OrganizationFK, tblCustomer.ShopNameFK, tblCustomer.OfficeSymFK, tblCustomer.LastName, tblCustomer.FirstName, tblRooms.BuildingFK, tblRooms.RoomsPK, tblBuilding.BuildingName, tblRooms.RoomName, tblSecOptions.SecName, tblCabinet.CabinetName, tblEquipment.CabinetFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentNameFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentBrandFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentNetworkTypeFK, tblEquipment.EquipmentIP, tblEquipment.SerialNum
FROM tblSecOptions INNER JOIN (((tblBuilding INNER JOIN tblRooms ON tblBuilding.BuildingPK = tblRooms.BuildingFK) LEFT JOIN (tblCabinet LEFT JOIN tblEquipment ON tblCabinet.CabinetPK = tblEquipment.CabinetFK) ON tblRooms.RoomsPK = tblCabinet.RoomsFK) INNER JOIN (tblCustomer INNER JOIN tblRoomsPOC ON tblCustomer.CustomerPK = tblRoomsPOC.CustomerFK) ON tblRooms.RoomsPK = tblRoomsPOC.RoomsFK) ON tblSecOptions.SecOptionPK = tblRooms.SecOptionFK;

I need to make the Building ID and the Room ID (tblFacilityMgr.BuildingFK, tblBuilding.BuildingPK, tblRoomsPOC.RoomsFK, tblRooms.RoomsPK) unique and concatenate all other related data, to remove duplicates.

Below is the code I found online for a concatenate function. I cannot seem to figure out how to apply it to my query. It has something to do with "ConcatRelated("strField", "strTable")" Also I don't believe that will work to concatenate all the fields. it looks like it only handles one. Thank you so much for your help.

Public Function ConcatRelated(strField As String, _    strTable As String, _
    Optional strWhere As String, _
    Optional strOrderBy As String, _
    Optional strSeparator = ", ") As Variant
On Error GoTo Err_Handler
    'Purpose:   Generate a concatenated string of related records.
    'Return:    String variant, or Null if no matches.
    'Arguments: strField = name of field to get results from and concatenate.
    '           strTable = name of a table or query.
    '           strWhere = WHERE clause to choose the right values.
    '           strOrderBy = ORDER BY clause, for sorting the values.
    '           strSeparator = characters to use between the concatenated values.
    'Notes:     1. Use square brackets around field/table names with spaces or odd characters.
    '           2. strField can be a Multi-valued field (A2007 and later), but strOrderBy cannot.
    '           3. Nulls are omitted, zero-length strings (ZLSs) are returned as ZLSs.
    '           4. Returning more than 255 characters to a recordset triggers this Access bug:
    Dim rs As DAO.Recordset         'Related records
    Dim rsMV As DAO.Recordset       'Multi-valued field recordset
    Dim strSql As String            'SQL statement
    Dim strOut As String            'Output string to concatenate to.
    Dim lngLen As Long              'Length of string.
    Dim bIsMultiValue As Boolean    'Flag if strField is a multi-valued field.
    
    'Initialize to Null
    ConcatRelated = Null
    
    'Build SQL string, and get the records.
    strSql = "SELECT " & strField & " FROM " & strTable
    If strWhere <> vbNullString Then
        strSql = strSql & " WHERE " & strWhere
    End If
    If strOrderBy <> vbNullString Then
        strSql = strSql & " ORDER BY " & strOrderBy
    End If
    Set rs = DBEngine(0)(0).OpenRecordset(strSql, dbOpenDynaset)
    'Determine if the requested field is multi-valued (Type is above 100.)
    bIsMultiValue = (rs(0).Type > 100)
    
    'Loop through the matching records
    Do While Not rs.EOF
        If bIsMultiValue Then
            'For multi-valued field, loop through the values
            Set rsMV = rs(0).Value
            Do While Not rsMV.EOF
                If Not IsNull(rsMV(0)) Then
                    strOut = strOut & rsMV(0) & strSeparator
                End If
                rsMV.MoveNext
            Loop
            Set rsMV = Nothing
        ElseIf Not IsNull(rs(0)) Then
            strOut = strOut & rs(0) & strSeparator
        End If
        rs.MoveNext
    Loop
    rs.Close
    
    'Return the string without the trailing separator.
    lngLen = Len(strOut) - Len(strSeparator)
    If lngLen > 0 Then
        ConcatRelated = Left(strOut, lngLen)
    End If

Exit_Handler:
    'Clean up
    Set rsMV = Nothing
    Set rs = Nothing
    Exit Function

Err_Handler:
    MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, vbExclamation, "ConcatRelated()"
    Resume Exit_Handler End Function

Edit: after more searching, I found this: http://allenbrowne.com/func-concat.html

It does explain a lot and I'll definitely play around with it tomorrow, but I'm not sure how I'll implement it in such a large union query. It looks simple for just a couple fields.

[CJ_London]

using union queries is often a sign of an 'unnormalised' db. You may get more responses if you explain in English what your data consists of and what you are trying to achieve

[ittechguy]

I was wrong to use a union query. Instead, I needed the IN() function.

I created a new form which contained only BuildingPK and RoomsPK and then created a search form which used a filter variable and set it to tblBuildings.BuildingPK IN( sub query).

Its working now.