? duplicate serial-- how to merge records

[PathGeek]

Somehow I have a duplicate in an auto-enter serial, indexed "PatientID"... so that "sally" and "dick" have the same ID number; sally's tests are really dick's (with one modifiable exception), and dick's are dick's.

Question

1: what happens if I delete "sally" (will Dick's records disappear?)

2: can I merge the records and make sally disappear without losing all of the information which is valid to Dick's medical record?

hope this makes sense...

[aldipalo]

First, MAKE A BACK UP!

Next, change Sally's ID to the next highest ID number and go into manage database and change your ID sequence to 1 digit higher than Sally's. Then change the ContactID in the test table for Sally to Sally's new ID number.

The question is, however, how did that happen. Check and make sure that ID numbers are unique. Also, IMHO, you should not allow anyone to change an ID number.

hth

[Greg G]

I don't think there is any way to merge the data. You would need to give us some more info on how the serial is used to connect all of the information.

Can you just manually create a new serial for Sally and her tests? That would solve you problem.

I think that you should be fine to delete Sally as long as the test records are attached to Dick too. I am assuming that you are using the serial in a relationship between the "person" table and the "test" table. There are settings for the relationship that refer to which if any table's records should be deleted when a related record is deleted.

Greg

[PathGeek]

I was "doe in the headlights" when I found this out-- the option to manually change the serial number is logical. Thanks for the help!

[aldipalo]

Yes, you can manually change the serial number, but, if you do not change the serial number sequence you will eventually have the same problem again. Unless you know there are serial numbers that have been deleted earlier in the sequence. So, be careful about manually changing serial numbers it can create a whole can of worms in the future.