Question

What is the best way to do this in Access?

Create table tmp (   plant int,   material vchar(20),   workcenter int,   setuptime vchar(20) )  insert into tmp values( 1, mat1, 2, 30) insert into tmp values( 1, mat1, 3, 30) insert into tmp values( 1, mat2, 3, 30) insert into tmp values( 1, mat2, 4, 30) insert into tmp values( 2, mat1, 4, 30) insert into tmp values( 2, mat1, 5, 30) 

Result needs to look like.

Plant  Material  Workcenter1  Setuptime1  Workcenter2  Setuptime2 1      Mat1      2            30          3            30 1      Mat2      3            30          4            30 2      Mat1      4            30          5            30 

I was thinking that this might work, but there has to be a better way.

SELECT t.Plant,      t.Material,      t.Workcenter as Workcenter1,      t.setuptime as SetupTime1     t2.Workcenter as Workcenter2,      t2.setuptime as SetupTime2 FROM tmp t LEFT JOIN tmp t2   on t.plant = t2.plant   and t.material = t2.material 

Thanks a bunch.

Answer 1

From what I understand of the problem you want to solve I don’t think it’s feasible using a standard SQL query (at least not in Access).

I tried to hack some code that does what you want (I think).

How to use it

Just copy/paste the code below in a VBA module.
From code, or, from the VBA IDE Immediate window if you want to test it, just call:

ExpandTable 

Assumptions

• the table temp exists with the data you want to expand containing the plant/material/worksatation/etc
• the temp table is not empty (I have omitted some code checks to avoid bloating the sample).
• the expanded table will be created in a new table called result.

Code

Public Sub ExpandTable()      Dim db As DAO.Database     Dim rs As DAO.Recordset, rs2 As DAO.Recordset     Dim td As DAO.TableDef     Dim fd As DAO.Field     Dim maxWorkCenters As Integer     Dim i As Integer     Dim sql As String      Set db = CurrentDb      ' Delete the old result table if there was one '     On Error Resume Next     db.TableDefs.Delete 'result'     On Error GoTo 0      ' Create the result table '     Set td = db.CreateTableDef('result')     td.Fields.Append td.CreateField('Plant', dbInteger)     td.Fields.Append td.CreateField('Material', dbText)     ' Get the maximum number of workcenters we will need '     ' for a given Plan/Material combination '     sql = 'SELECT Count(*) FROM Temp GROUP BY Plant, Material'     Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(sql, dbOpenSnapshot)     maxWorkCenters = Nz(rs.Fields(0).Value, 0)     rs.Close     Set rs = Nothing     ' Create as many columns as we need to fit all these combinations '     For i = 1 To maxWorkCenters         td.Fields.Append td.CreateField('WorkCenter' & i, dbText)         td.Fields.Append td.CreateField('SetupTime' & i, dbInteger)     Next i     db.TableDefs.Append td      ' Now get the data into the new table '     Dim lastPlant As Variant, lastMaterial As Variant     Dim curcol As Integer     sql = 'SELECT Plant, Material, Workcenter, Setuptime FROM Temp ORDER BY Plant, Material, WorkCenter'     Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(sql, dbOpenSnapshot)     Set rs2 = db.OpenRecordset('result', dbOpenDynaset)     With rs         lastPlant = 0         lastMaterial = ''         Do While Not .EOF             If (Nz(!Plant) <> lastPlant) Or (Nz(!Material) <> lastMaterial) Then                 If rs2.EditMode = dbEditAdd Then                     ' Save the previously edited record if any '                     rs2.Update                 End If                  ' Different plant/material, so we add a new result '                 rs2.AddNew                 rs2!Plant = !Plant                 rs2!Material = !Material                 rs2!WorkCenter1 = !WorkCenter                 rs2!SetupTime1 = !Setuptime                 lastPlant = Nz(!Plant)                 lastMaterial = Nz(!Material)                 curcol = 1             Else                 ' Same plant/material combi, so we fill the next column set '                 curcol = curcol + 1                 rs2.Fields('Workcenter' & curcol).Value = !WorkCenter                 rs2.Fields('SetupTime' & curcol).Value = !Setuptime             End If             .MoveNext         Loop         If rs2.EditMode = dbEditAdd Then             ' Save the last result '             rs2.Update         End If     End With      Set rs2 = Nothing     Set rs = Nothing     Set db = Nothing  End Sub 

About the code

• The result table is entirely re-created every time you run ExpandTable.
• The number of additional WorkCenterX and SetupTimeX columns adapts to the actual number of unique Plant/Material pairs.
• You’ll have to modify code to suit your exact needs.
• You’ll also have to clean it up a bit as some things could probably be expressed a bit better but you get the jest.

Test database

You can download a test Access 2000 database from http://blog.nkadesign.com/wp-content/uploads/SO/SO547777.zip.

Anyway, hope it does what you want or at least gets your closer.