From the course: Access Quick Tips

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Finding missing data

Finding missing data - Microsoft Access Tutorial

From the course: Access Quick Tips

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Finding missing data

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- [Instructor] So, it's life or death if your customer service staff doesn't get a zip code, or a mobile number from the customer calling in for help. Should you make that field in the database required? No, because it only forces people to fake it, entering dummy data to let them get passed the required field, and save the record they're editing. After awhile this results in a highly unreliable database. A better alternative, let your data entry personnel leave the fields, even the really important ones blank, if they don't currently have a valid entry to make. You can easily search later using a query that looks for records that are missing data in important fields. In the query design grid, type is null in the criteria row for the fields you want to be filled in. It's important that you do these queries one field at a time, if you combine them you're asking to see records with more than one blank field, and those with only one blank field won't be included in your results.

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