Help with Microsoft Access

[glitch]

I've been using Microsoft Access for about 6 months now for small business purposes. Basically, I offer a course that can be taken every 18 months or 3 years. I'm only using using Microsoft Access as a simplu database, I can type in someone's name or an ID number, and their information will pop-up (class date, address, etc.)

The problem I'm having is that Microsoft access will not allow duplicate entries, It stops me from adding an existing name with the same ID number into another class date. Like I said , this course can be taken ever 18 months or 3 years, so it will be a problem in the foreseeable future. I've tried googling the solution, but seems to answer higher-end questions with different applications.

I would really appreciate any help,because if I can't find any solution, 6 months worth of work will be lost.

Thank you

[AqD]

Because you have a primary key on the ID number? You can unmark primary key on the ID column, or add an automatic sequence column for primary key (the sequence is meaningless itself), and then that particular problem would be gone.

But maybe there may be something wrong with your database design - what you really need may be a separated table to record person's ID and the class date (but not other personal info). No data should be duplicated under normal circumstances.

[Ybbon]

I don't know Access but I know Oracle and MySQL (a bit) and really it sounds like your design is not right here. How have you designed your schemas? As aqd says you'd need 2 tables, one with classes where class_id is not null and indexed and one for students where student_id is indexed and not null. You probably need a couple more tables but at least then you can have many-many relationships between students and classes.