Copy and paste a record within a table?

chezchas · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

I've been working with Base for awhile and really like it. I created a database that I use to keep track of all my DVDs (I have *alot*). The database works great. But there's one thing I can't seem to do in Base that I could do in Access.

In Access I could copy and paste a record within the same table -- of course, before I could save the newly pasted record, I needed to change the data in the primary key field to a unique number (in my case the primary key is the unique number I assign each DVD). However in Base, when I highlight an entire record in a table, I can copy it, but I can't paste it (paste won't show up as an option when I'm in the same table).

Being able to copy and paste a record within a table is very handy when you are entering alot of records that are very similar -- it's handy to paste from an existing record, change the key, and one or two other fields, and then save the record.

I should add that I can copy and paste the data in individual fields just fine, but when there are ten fields in a record, it's tedious to perform ten copy and pastes (I could actually type in the data faster). It would be much more efficient to copy and paste an entire record.

Please forgive me if I'm missing something really basic -- I read the tutorials and searched extensively on this topic but couldn't find the answer. I appreciate any help -- Thanks!

chezchas · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

Bump!

Torolf · General User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 41

Not sure if this would help, but have you looked at this thread

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=23186&highlight=duplicate+record

Also this thread...

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=22258&highlight=movetoinsertrow

Torolf

BookLady · Super User Joined: 03 Nov 2004 Posts: 727

And if those two threads intimidate you as much as they did me there is another way.

Make your entries in Calc, export as a CSV, create a temporary DB based on the CSV file, append the new DB table to the table in the original DB. Complicated to say the least. But it works. With a little practice it might be faster than typing in numerous entries. And it could be edited in the Calc sheet before importing to the DB.

chezchas · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

I wanted to thank everyone for their excellent suggestions.

Based on what the experts are saying, It looks like a simple Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+V (paste) of a record within a table is not currently supported in Base. I hope it will be supported in a future release.

I understand that supporting this feature within Base is a little complicated. You can't simply copy and paste a record in Base the way you can copy and paste a sentence in Writer, since in Base (as in all databases) each record must have a unique key. If you duplicate a record, the key will also be duplicated which is not allowed. The way Access handles this is fairly simple. Access allows you to copy and paste a record within a table, but then if you try to save the duplicate record without first changing the key, you receive the standard message that a duplicate key cannot be saved. So the procedure for duplicating a record in Access is pretty easy, you simply copy and paste a record, change the key of the duplicate record (usually incrementing it by one), and *then* save the record. I hope that a similar solution can be implemented in an upcoming release of Base -- since the ability to duplicate a record is a very powerful productivity tool when using any database.

In the meantime, I'll try some of the helpful workarounds that were suggested here. Thanks for the help.