Question

The table structure i currently have is like this:

Category —– Description —– Threshold ——Errors

Cat1 —————Info ——————90% ————1

Cat1 —————Info ——————90%————-4

Cat2 —————Manual————–15% ————5

Cat2 —————Manual————–15% ————2

Cat2 —————Manual————–15% ————0

But i’m looking to get it like this:

Category —– Description —– Threshold ——Errors

Cat1 —————Info ——————90% ————5

Cat2 —————Manual————–15% ————7

I have tried SUM on [Errors] and GROUP at the end of my SQL, but it still does not seem to do the trick.

Answer 1

SELECT 
    Category,
    [Description],
    Threshold,
    Sum(Errors) AS SumOfErrors
FROM YourTable
GROUP BY
    Category,
    [Description],
    Threshold;

I don’t understand why that query shouldn’t get what you want. Notice I enclosed Description with square brackets. Description is a reserved word (see Problem names and reserved words in Access) and the square brackets make it clear to the db engine you’re referring to a field name rather than the reserved word.

I don’t know that ambiguous name was the cause of your trouble. However it’s almost impossible to predict when reserved names will bite you. You could be fine in many contexts before you hit one which hurts. Best to avoid using reserved words for database object names. And when you absolutely can’t avoid them, at least enclose those names with square brackets wherever you reference them in your queries.