I am troubled to have to admit that every now & then we find orphan records in the database. Probably about once a month (mumble maybe week mumble mumble), when a list is ran there will be a blank row with no name etc. I thought I had commit records and a little field validation to prevent this, but obviously it’s not enough.

What are some basic steps that would prevent orphan records?

I can provide a table structure diagram if that would be more helpful. Just let me know

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Without knowing a little more about how your child records are being created it is difficult to advise but since it is only happening occasionally it strikes me that you have a creation routine that allows the user to abandon the routine at some point without tidying up after him.

Tightening up on the navigation should address that problem ie if the user hits the 'back' or 'abandon' or 'main' button run a script that has a look to see if the child record has been created, if so is it empty and even if it is not empty should it not be deleted because of the 'abandon' etc.

The main thing is that your users must have found a route out of the routine that leaves the orphan record. What you have to do is control ALL the exits.

With this problem it might be better to study the users practices rather than studying your scripts.

Sorry I cannot be more specific but like I say without knowing a little more...

Phil