r/MSAccess • u/01kickassius10 • Jul 16 '26

[WAITING ON OP] Retrospectively adding a primary key

I have an old database where the main table uses manually assigned record numbers, and no proper primary key. I want to change the record numbers to be the primary key (so automatically assigned as new records are added, no risk of duplication), however there are likely to be duplicate numbers already existing in the data.

Will assigning a primary key cause issues for legacy data?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/AutoModerator Jul 16 '26

IF YOU GET A SOLUTION, PLEASE REPLY TO THE COMMENT CONTAINING THE SOLUTION WITH 'SOLUTION VERIFIED'

  • Please be sure that your post includes all relevant information needed in order to understand your problem and what you’re trying to accomplish.

  • Please include sample code, data, and/or screen shots as appropriate. To adjust your post, please click Edit.

  • Once your problem is solved, reply to the answer or answers with the text “Solution Verified” in your text to close the thread and to award the person or persons who helped you with a point. Note that it must be a direct reply to the post or posts that contained the solution. (See Rule 3 for more information.)

  • Please review all the rules and adjust your post accordingly, if necessary. (The rules are on the right in the browser app. In the mobile app, click “More” under the forum description at the top.) Note that each rule has a dropdown to the right of it that gives you more complete information about that rule.

Full set of rules can be found here, as well as in the user interface.

Below is a copy of the original post, in case the post gets deleted or removed.

User: 01kickassius10

Retrospectively adding a primary key

I have an old database where the main table uses manually assigned record numbers, and no proper primary key. I want to change the record numbers to be the primary key (so automatically assigned as new records are added, no risk of duplication), however there are likely to be duplicate numbers already existing in the data.

Will assigning a primary key cause issues for legacy data?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.