Delete Records that are Missing Related Children

In this Microsoft Access tutorial I'm going to teach you how to create a delete query that can be used to delete records that are missing related records. You will learn about a problem that exists with delete queries that you can't use a JOIN for. We will instead have to use the IN function.

Ethan from Syracuse, New York (a Platinum Member) writes: I am trying to go through my database and delete all orders that don't have any line item details with them. This happens quite often where my sales reps put in orders but don't finish them and don't add line items and now I've got a bunch of basically blank orders in my database.

Warning

Before you begin, moderator Scott reminded me that I should have warned you to backup your database. And of course, I'm not a fan of deleting data, instead I prefer to mark it archived, but there are cases where deleting bogus data is warranted.

Prerequisites

• Invoicing: https://599cd.com/Invoicing
• Relationships: https://599cd.com/Relationships
• Outer Joins: https://599cd.com/OuterJoin
• Delete Queries: https://599cd.com/Delete
• SQL with Access: https://599cd.com/SQLwithAccess

Links

• Null: https://599cd.com/Null

Recommended Courses

• Access SQL Seminar Part 1: https://599cd.com/SQL1

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Keywords

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