Locating unused fields

[tobbe_b]

Hi,

I'm new here and new to Access. I think I've understood that locating unused fields is not a feature in Access.



Do you have ny golden tips for me? Is there any way of doing this? I'd like a clean table when sending up the project to my costumer.

Thanks!

[CJ_London]

Your requirement is not clear enough to suggest a solution.

Provide an example of what you mean - an example of data in the table where fields are not used and the output that you want from that data to send to the customer. Also confirm how you are sending the table - as an excel or csv file, a pdf? A table in an email? Something else?

[Welshgasman]

Be a bit more methodical. If you remove a control and no longer need the field, remove it there and then.

You could iterate through all tdfs for the fields, but not sure how to check objects to see if they name was used.

[Micron]

As I interpret it, the requirement is to ensure that all tables have no data. Maybe that's not correct. If it is, then you should have had a backup of the tables before you started putting test data in them. Now you will have to run delete queries against them all, or write code that loops through all tables and runs a delete sql statement against them.

[tobbe_b]

Thanks for replying, guys...

So yea, I wasn't too good at keeping track of this from the begining (which I of course should have), but the problem now is that there are too many fields in the tables which aren't in use at all in any of the forms, queries or reports.
I mean, it's not super the end of the world if I do not manage to remove these, it's more of a quality principle, from my point of view.

[Welshgasman]

You could perhaps try the Database Documenter?

Also have a look here

A bit deeper here

[CJ_London]

The links provided by Welshgasman are a good start but a lot depends on your app and how well it is built

For example if you have the same field name in multiple tables - you will get erroneous results
You may have code that sets a recordsource and populates controlsources - that might return erroneous results since the controlsources either won't be populated or populated wiht the wrong names.
You may be using domain functions that references the field
You may have queries that reference the field (perhaps in criteria) but doesn't return it
Hopefully you do not use lookup/multiselect fields in your table design

Whether you use the examples or not, I would disable auto update and rename all suspect fields with a prefix of 'zz'. Then run the app testing all facets - form/report events, queries and modules + macros if you use them. Any errors such as 'field not found', means you need to remove the prefix.

Also take a look at @isladogs Database Analyser here - https://www.isladogs.co.uk/database-...pro/index.html

[tobbe_b]

You could perhaps try the Database Documenter?

Also have a look here

A bit deeper here

Great, this worked well. I altered the code to print diferently though and create a log of it all. Thanks a lot Welshgasman and GPT! <3

Feel free to use: https://pastebin.com/W5nYn1Fr

[pbaldy]

Post 8 was moderated, I'm posting to trigger email notifications.