I have an existing field that is presently alphanumeric in type. I would like to know how I could modify that field to a different type, such as a table.

Hi Nick,

This is a quite a common problem, There isn't a one click answer but its not hard to do.

In essence you need to make the new field (with a different name for now) search for or select groups of records based on the old field, and global edit on the new item value. Finally delete the old field and rename the new one.

You will probably find it a good idea to create a column layout/view that shows the old UDF.

If your alpha field has been around for a long time and there are lots of messy variations on the same value then start by searching for all records with a value in the old UDF. Next sort by the UDF column. Then select blocks of fields and Edit/Global edit on the new item value. (Use edit/invert selection - and Edit/make selected list curret - edit/deselect all. to remove the recoded records from the list. Keep going until there's nothing in the list.

If your Alpha field has been commpleted in a very tidy way search for records containing one Value at a time and global edit on the new value.

When you've done delete the old Alpha UDf and rename the new table to the old name. Job Done

NOTE: You need sufficient rights to set up new UDF, Rename and delete them - you also need rights to use Global Edit

Regards,

Ian Wallace
CABC
Newbury, UK

Thanks for the help. I've tried it all out and seems to work well.