Question : CAnnot add record(s); primary key for table 'table1' not in recordset

I have table1 is a history table which contains fields primarykey, customerid, month, year, and other fields for the period
table2 contains customer info of 'a' given month/year

I want to 'update' table2 information to to table1.  

So

I  created query1, which contains all fields of table1, with criteria month and year set to the month and year I want to update.

I created query2, which has table1 left join with query1.

If query2 is a select query and I include primary of table1, then the query is fine and updatable.

However, if I made query2 an update query then I get the error message 'Cannot add record(s); primary key for table 'table1' not in recordset'.  I can't include primary key for table 'table1' because it's an update query.

Help?

Answer : CAnnot add record(s); primary key for table 'table1' not in recordset

Maybe there is some confusion...

1) Although I think you got that right: you can run an update query (execute) by double-clicking it or using the [!] button. You can also open an update query *as* select query if you use the normal "open query" button from the left of the toolbar, from design mode.

2) In datasheet view of a LEFT JOIN query, you can do several things: update data, auto-insert data in the right-side table, append new rows to the left-side table, etc. In action queries, you do only one thing at a time.

So:

* make two copies of your query
* in copy one, the UPDATE query, set the join to INNER JOIN, to update information from matching fields.
* in copy two, change to APPEND query and add the criteriy under "query1.keyfield" to Null. This will select only unmatched records, e.g. *new* records.

So you will be able to update in two steps: update matching records and append new records.

Hope this helps