Question

I have an access table with an automatic primary key, a date, and other data. The first record starts at 36, due to deleted records. I want to change all the primary keys so they begin at 1 and increment, ordered by the date. Whats the best way to do this?

I want to change the table from this:

| TestID | Date     | Data |
|  36    | 12/02/09 | .54  |
|  37    | 12/04/09 | .52  |

To this:

| TestID | Date     | Data |
|  1     | 12/02/09 | .54  |
|  2     | 12/04/09 | .52  |

EDIT: Thanks for the input and those who answered. I think some were reading a little too much into my question, which is okay because it still adds to my learning and thinking process. The purpose of my question was two fold: 1) It would simply be nicer for me to have the PK match with the order of my data’s dates and 2) to learn if something like this was possible for later use. Such as, if I want to add a new column to the table which numbers the tests, labels the type of test, etc. I am trying to learn a lot at once right now so I get a little confused where to start sometimes. I am building .NET apps and trying to learn SQL and database management and it is sometimes confusing finding the right info with the different RDMS’s and ways to interact with them.

Answer 1

Following from MikeW, you can use the following SQL command to copy the data from the old to the new table:

INSERT 
    TestID, Date, Data
INTO
    NewTable
SELECT
    TestID, Date, Data
FROM
    OldTable;

The new TestID will start from 1 if you use an AutoIncrement field.