Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

Unless the file resides on a corporate network that is backed up nightly, no.

This would be a demonstration of why Excel shouldn't be used as a database.
It's too easy to delete stuff.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

I think it's a better demonstration why regular backups should be made.

The data for any application could be lost.

Dave F wrote:

Unless the file resides on a corporate network that is backed up nightly, no.

This would be a demonstration of why Excel shouldn't be used as a database.
It's too easy to delete stuff.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

--

Dave Peterson

Right but it's harder to delete entire columns of data in a database than it
is in excel. DBs are designed for the principle of data integrity; Excel is
not.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I think it's a better demonstration why regular backups should be made.

The data for any application could be lost.

Dave F wrote:

Unless the file resides on a corporate network that is backed up nightly, no.

This would be a demonstration of why Excel shouldn't be used as a database.
It's too easy to delete stuff.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

--

Dave Peterson

I would think that the integrity of the data would have more to do with the
person entering the data. I can make a lot of typos in any application.

Dave F wrote:

Right but it's harder to delete entire columns of data in a database than it
is in excel. DBs are designed for the principle of data integrity; Excel is
not.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I think it's a better demonstration why regular backups should be made.

The data for any application could be lost.

Dave F wrote:

Unless the file resides on a corporate network that is backed up nightly, no.

This would be a demonstration of why Excel shouldn't be used as a database.
It's too easy to delete stuff.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

If you have a master customer list in a separate file and a common field
(like customer #) between the master and the order file, you can use VLOOKUP
to bring the customer name and address back in.
--
Elisabeth


"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

And, in Excel, you have the ability to just close without saving after, say,
50 entries, whereas with Access, you can't just close without saving. Those
entries are stuck in there...

So, yeah.. it's more about the user...

"Dave F" wrote:

Right but it's harder to delete entire columns of data in a database than it
is in excel. DBs are designed for the principle of data integrity; Excel is
not.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I think it's a better demonstration why regular backups should be made.

The data for any application could be lost.

Dave F wrote:

Unless the file resides on a corporate network that is backed up nightly, no.

This would be a demonstration of why Excel shouldn't be used as a database.
It's too easy to delete stuff.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Technophobe" wrote:

Hi,

I have a database of customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, and
their orders - listed column by column.

I have accidentally deleted the entire "name" column and the entire
"address" column for approx 5,000 customers. Unfortunately I did not realise
I had deleted the whole column instead of just one incorrect entry and
carried on with my work, pressing Save when i had finished.

Imagine my horror to find out two years worth of entries now have no names
and addresses attached to them and to be told by the pc helpline that because
I pressed Save after the deletion there is no way to recover the two columns.

HELP - does anyone know of anyway to retrieve them, are they still on the
computer somewhere - any suggestions welcome please.

Thank you

--

Dave Peterson