Microsoft KB Archive/170986

= ACC: How to Fill a Table with Random Records from Another Table =

Article ID: 170986

Article Last Modified on 1/20/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q170986



Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.



SUMMARY
This article demonstrates a method that you can use to fill a table with random records from another table. The sample procedure in this article uses Data Access Objects (DAO) to fill a table with a user-specified number of records from an existing table. The following example randomly selects records from the Orders table in the Northwind sample database and adds them to a new table.

This article assumes that you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information about Visual Basic for Applications, please refer to your version of the "Building Applications with Microsoft Access" manual.



MORE INFORMATION
One way that you can get a certain number of random records from a table is to create a query based on the table. You can create an expression that applies the Rnd function to a Number field in the table; if there is no Number field available, you can apply the Len function to a text field and then apply the Rnd function to the result. Next, you set the sort order of this calculated field to ascending or descending, and then select from the table the other fields that you want to see in the query result. Finally, you set the query's TopValues property to the number of records you want.

However, there is a disadvantage to this method. When you start Microsoft Access and run the query, a particular set of records is returned, which can be referred to as "Recordset A." You may run the query several more times with different results, and then quit Microsoft Access. The next time you start Microsoft Access and run the query, the result is again Recordset A.

One resolution is to run a procedure that uses DAO to fill a table with a specified number of records from an existing table; this procedure also uses the Randomize statement to reinitialize the random-number generator. The following steps demonstrate how to use the sample subroutine BuildRandomTable.

 Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.  Create the following table:

     Table: tblRandom ---     Field Name: lngGuessNumber Data Type: Number Field Size: Long Integer Indexed: Yes (No Duplicates) Field Name: lngOrderNumber Data Type: Number Field Size: Long Integer Indexed: No

Table Properties: tblRandom ---     PrimaryKey: lngGuessNumber   Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:

     Option Explicit   Type the following procedure:

Sub BuildRandomTable(lngRequest as Long)

Dim dbsRandom As Database Dim rstOrders As Recordset Dim rstRandom As Recordset Dim UpperLimit As Long Dim LowerLimit As Long Dim lngCounter As Long Dim lngGuess As Long Dim lngRecordCount As Long

' Assumes that this module is in the Northwind database. Set dbsRandom = CurrentDb ' Delete any existing records from tblRandom table. dbsRandom.Execute "Delete * from tblRandom;" ' Open Orders as a Table Type recordset. Set rstOrders = dbsRandom.OpenRecordset("Orders", dbOpenTable) rstOrders.MoveFirst LowerLimit = rstOrders!OrderID rstOrders.MoveLast UpperLimit = rstOrders!OrderID lngRecordCount = rstOrders.RecordCount

Set rstRandom = dbsRandom.OpenRecordset("tblRandom", _                        dbOpenDynaset) lngCounter = 1

' Check to make sure the number of        ' records requested is reasonable. If lngRequest > lngRecordCount Then MsgBox "Request is greater than the total number of records." Exit Sub Else lngRequest = lngRequest + 1 End If

Randomize Do Until lngCounter = lngRequest ' Generate a random number lngGuess = Int((UpperLimit - LowerLimit + 1) _              * Rnd + LowerLimit) ' Ensure that it exists in the Orders table. rstOrders.Index = "PrimaryKey" rstOrders.Seek "=", lngGuess If rstOrders.NoMatch Then ' Drop through and generate a new number. Else ' Check to see if it's already been used in the new table. rstRandom.FindFirst "lngOrderNumber =" & lngGuess ' If not, add it to the new table. If rstRandom.NoMatch Then With rstRandom .AddNew !lngGuessNumber = lngCounter !lngOrderNumber = lngGuess .Update End With lngCounter = lngCounter + 1 End If         End If          Loop ' Clean up. dbsRandom.Close End Sub  To test this procedure, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

BuildRandomTable 5

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