Condensing Rows of Data into one Cell

[alexandermorris]

I've got an Access database for my shopping cart and I think I can manage to do most of what I want with it. But Unfortunately the shopping cart I use will not assign a SKU to the final combination of product attributes chosen by the customer. Instead the shopping cart creates a new row of data for each product attribute under each order item. I need to condense those rows into essentially one sku that is associated with the order item.

This is over my head. I will pay to have this done within Access. Can anyone help me with this? If this is not the right place to post I apologize. This is my first time to this forum.

Thanks!

Cherie

[NassauBob]

So you need to concatenate several columns into one? Am I understanding you right?

In a query, you can create a custom field, and do that very thing. Here's how:

1)In query design view, start by giving a new, empty field a custom name, like SKU. Follow the name with a :, like SKU:

2) after the semicolon and a space, enter the names of the columns you need to combine, in order, with a & between each, like this: SKU: [columnA] & [columnB] & [columnC].....until you have all the columns you require.

I hope that helps. In my opinion, it is better that you make a query to view that kind of combination of data, and not to have it permanently joined in your table. You never know when you might want any one of those individual pieces, and it's more tedious to separate a piece than to combine them :-)