MS Excel/Access 2010 spreadsheet/table format

Hello, I'm new to this forum, so I may not be familiar with all the functionality or process.

My question is; I'm trying to delete 500 users that are included in a master list of 30,000 users. These 500 records are in Excel and Access, just trying to see which is the best way to manipulate the data. There is only one field, the user ID, that identifies the indivual on both spreadsheets/tables. Thank you for your help.
Brian

is it a one time off thing? if yes, you can use VLookup formula to identify the 500 users within that 30,000 list. And as for Access, I don't really know a good way to specifically delete those 500 records, I would probably do the deletion with Excel and then re-import into the table.

Yes, it is a one time thing. Yes, I was thinking of exporting into Excel then importing back into access. Is VLookup a handy little tool?

Yes Vlookup is extremely useful in many cases, I personally use it often to find the a list of values within another list, just like what you need now. You can search on Youtube for examples/guides on how to use it.

Thank you so much. I'll let you know what I end up using as my final solution.

Originally Posted by bthompson45

Hello, I'm new to this forum, so I may not be familiar with all the functionality or process.

My question is; I'm trying to delete 500 users that are included in a master list of 30,000 users. These 500 records are in Excel and Access, just trying to see which is the best way to manipulate the data. There is only one field, the user ID, that identifies the indivual on both spreadsheets/tables. Thank you for your help.
Brian

Hey Brian,
There's a couple of ways to do what you're trying to do. If you're lucky you can find a commonality in all of the names listed..such as same first letter of the first name or same last letter in the last name. This way, you could set up a column with a left (or right) function and sort based on the names you need. the formula for the left function is =left(target cell, # of characters). This will display the first x characters based on what you specify. Then you can sort the entire list and delete the names that you want to delete. The mid function works similarly but finds a character in the middle of a string, which can be useful as well in some cases.

The other way is a bit more tedious but will be much better than searching through 30,000 names. Use the Ctrl+F function to find the user number and delete it. Unfortunately, you'll have to do this for each of the 500 names in the list.

I'll keep thinking about if there's a better way and will let you know if I get any other ideas.

Good luck.

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