How to Create a Delete Action Query in Microsoft Access

By creating a Delete action query in Microsoft Access, you can automatically delete a group of records from one or several tables. For example, in your CD database, you could use a delete query to delete all records pertaining to a CD that you have thrown out. A Delete action query is one of the four types of action queries that Microsoft Access allows (Delete, Update, Append, and Make-Table). These instructions are for Access 97.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Microsoft Access

1. To delete records from a single table, or from tables with relationships, first create a new query containing the tables that you want to use.

2. From Query Design view, click the arrow beside Query Type, then click Delete Query. A window appears containing a list of tables and a grid.

3. Locate the tables from which you want to delete records. Drag the asterisk (*) from these tables to the design grid. The word From appears in the Delete cell.

4. Drag the fields that you want to use to the design grid. For example, if you want to delete all records for Country Western music from your CD collection, you might drag a field named Genre to the grid.

5. In the criteria cell that appears, type the criteria that you want to delete. In this example, you would enter "Country Western."

6. Open the View menu and select Datasheet View to view the records that will be deleted.

7. Open the View menu and choose Design View to return to to the query. Make any changes needed.

8. Click Run on the toolbar to delete the records.

Tips & Warnings

• To stop a query that is running, press Ctrl+Break (PC users).