# Data Entry In MS Access - No Duplicate Records?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-entry-in-ms-access-no-duplicate-records/157645>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 26, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-entry-in-ms-access-no-duplicate-records/157645 "2003-02-26T15:22:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-entry-in-ms-access-no-duplicate-records/157645/1 "2003-02-26T15:22:44Z")

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Is there an easy way to prevent the entry of duplicate records when entering data from a form in MS Access?  
I think this is a pretty clear explanation but feel free to ask questions if my question is not understandable.

As always - thanks in advance, I know the dopers won’t let me down (even if the answer is that it can’t be done)! 😃

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-entry-in-ms-access-no-duplicate-records/157645/2 "2003-02-26T15:24:30Z")

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If you edit the design of the underlying table, you can set one or more fields to be indexed with no duplicates…

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**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-entry-in-ms-access-no-duplicate-records/157645/3 "2003-02-26T17:16:26Z")

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Or set one or more fields to be the primary key.