Combining Active and Backup Database Records in Union Query ~ LEARN MS-ACCESS TIPS AND TRICKS

Introduction.

Microsoft Access database has a maximum size limit of 2GB. To maintain performance and avoid reaching this limit, older records (such as previous year’s transactions) can be safely archived into a backup database for future reference. Once these records are backed up, they can be deleted from the active database. Run the Compact & Repair Utility to optimize performance for day-to-day operations.

However, there are situations where older data is required for analysis—for example, preparing budgets, setting sales targets, or comparing trends. In such cases, we may need to reintegrate archived records with the current master table in the active database to perform meaningful analysis.

The Union Query Solution.

We can merge records of both the active table and backup table (with the same name) in a Union Query.

A simple example is given below:

SELECT Export.* 
FROM Export
UNION ALL SELECT Export.*
FROM Export IN 'G:\NEW FOLDER\DB1.MDB';

From the above example, you can see that the names of the tables exported to an active database, and backup database(DB1.MDB) are the same. No need to link the table to the active database to get access to the data from the backup database.