Duplicating Tables

[Hugh2]

I am fairly new to v8.5 and am creating a database to capture data over multiple years. Data elements will be the same for each year and I am thinking about a table for each year with the same fields. Is there a way to create one table (Year1) and duplicate it (Year2, Year3, etc)? I see how I can have multiple occurrences of a table but this is just the same table with the same fields isn't it? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is there another approach? Thanks in advance.

[mr_vodka]

Wouldnt it make more sense to have one table with all your data, a field that designates what year the data is for and then group by year to get a particular year's data?

[Hugh2]

Well that's why I am coming here. For good advice. What you are suggesting sounds good. How would I control the display of data? I am thinking about using the new tab interface with tabs for each year.

[mr_vodka]

But then you would be limited to the number of tabs you create. It may be better to use a global field to set the year that you want to view the data from. A realtionship would be created from this field to the year field in your table. So when the global field is set to lets say 2005, then only the related records with the year 2005 could be displayed, for example in a portal.