This sounds ridiculously easy but I've tried so many different approaches. This query is just set up weird and I'm trying to JOIN it but there's not a common column I can do that with. There is, however, a LastFirst column (consists of LastName then FirstName) written in the context of DOE, JOHN. Then on the columns I'm trying to join that with it's just FirstName (John) and LastName (Doe).
I'm actually trying to select data from 4 tables that all are returning 1 row. These 2 tables can be joined:
SELECT
RIFQuery.*,
_Employee.EmployeeLastName + ', ' + _Employee.EmployeeFirstName AS EmployeeLastFirst,
_Employee.EmployeeTitle, _Employee.Phone As EmployeePhone,
_Employee.EmailAddress As EmployeeEmailAddress
FROM
RIFQuery
INNER JOIN
_Employee ON RIFQuery.CreatedBy = _Employee.AutoNumber
WHERE
RIFQuery.Autonumber = 1
This one has nothing to join with so I'll probably union it and null remaining columns:
SELECT *
FROM tblOrganization
This is the table that contains LastName and FirstName that I'm trying to join with RIFQuery.LastFirst:
SELECT
Gender As ClientGender, DOB As ClientDOB, SSN As ClientSSN
FROM
_Clients
WHERE
_Clients.LASTNAME = left(RIFQuery.LastFirst, len(RIFQuery.LastFirst)-CHARINDEX(',', REVERSE(RIFQuery.LastFirst)))
AND _Clients.FIRSTNAME = ltrim(substring(RIFQuery.LastFirst, len(RIFQuery.LastFirst)-CHARINDEX(',', REVERSE(RIFQuery.LastFirst))+2, len(RIFQuery.LastFirst)))
In that WHERE statement the code will split the LastFirst column and get the row by searching their LastName and FirstName. I'm wondering if there's a way I can write that into a JOIN? Otherwise I can probably UNION and null remaining columns but it will look very ugly.
UPDATE
I tried 2 suggestions from here and both result in a syntax error. I forgot to mention that I'm executing this code inside Microsoft Access VBA and trying to retrieve a DAO.RecordSet. I had to remove some table names in the SELECT statement to get past a syntax error from there, so maybe I should update the question to reflect MS ACCESS and not SQL Server, although only the query is the only pure Access object and the rest are linked ODBC tables to SQL Server.
UPDATE
Just one of those issues where I can't sleep until it's fixed and will obsess until it is. If I take out all _Employee references (from SELECT and JOIN statements), it wants to work but errors about too few parameters. I just now know this is related to _Employee. Getting different results from applying parentheses and just hoping I'll get lucky and hit on it.
The error is caused by this line:
INNER JOIN [_Employee] ON [_Employee].[AutoNumber] = [RIFQuery].[CreatedBy]
I get this error:
"Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression".
As seen in this screenshot:
Here's my latest query I'm playing with, minus the parentheses:
str = "SELECT [RIFQuery].*, " & vbCrLf & _
" ([_Employee].[EmployeeLastName] & ', ' & [_Employee].[EmployeeFirstName]) AS [EmployeeLastFirst], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Employee].[EmployeeTitle], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Employee].[Phone] AS [EmployeePhone], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Employee].[EmailAddress] AS [EmployeeEmailAddress], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Clients].[Gender] AS [ClientGender], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Clients].[DOB] AS [ClientDOB], " & vbCrLf & _
" [_Clients].[SSN] AS [ClientSSN] " & vbCrLf & _
"FROM [_Clients] " & vbCrLf & _
" INNER JOIN [RIFQuery] ON [RIFQuery].[LastFirst] = [_Clients].[LASTNAME] & ', ' & [_Clients].[FIRSTNAME] " & vbCrLf & _
" INNER JOIN [_Employee] ON [_Employee].[AutoNumber] = [RIFQuery].[CreatedBy] " & vbCrLf & _
"WHERE [RIFQuery].[Autonumber] = 1;"
For debugging purposes, if I remove those last 2 lines and the _Employee SELECT statements, it'll process the query without a problem. If anyone has any ideas just let me know.
I was focused on that RIFQuery JOIN statement being the culprit for the longest time but I've found that simply is not the issue any more. With that said, this thread has been essentially solved and I appreciate the help.
MS Access is using a slightly different syntax than SQL Server when it comes to using more than one JOIN. You could leave out the JOIN with the _Clients (making it a cross join) and move that condition to the WHERE clause, which would make the query look like this (and which would allow you to display the design window for the query without any problem)
SELECT RIFQuery.*,
EmployeeLastName + ', ' + EmployeeFirstName As EmployeeLastFirst,
EmployeeTitle, Phone As EmployeePhone, EmailAddress As EmployeeEmailAddress,
Gender As ClientGender, DOB As ClientDOB, SSN As ClientSSN
FROM _Clients, RIFQuery INNER JOIN _Employee ON RIFQuery.CreatedBy = _Employee.AutoNumber
WHERE RIFQuery.LastFirst = _Clients.LASTNAME & ", " & _Clients.FIRSTNAME;
Instead of assembling the query string in VBA just for being able to change the parameter value, I suggest to save the following query as an Access object (maybe qryRIF):
PARAMETERS lgRIF Long;
SELECT RIFQuery.*,
EmployeeLastName + ', ' + EmployeeFirstName As EmployeeLastFirst,
EmployeeTitle, Phone As EmployeePhone, EmailAddress As EmployeeEmailAddress,
Gender As ClientGender, DOB As ClientDOB, SSN As ClientSSN
FROM _Clients, RIFQuery INNER JOIN _Employee ON RIFQuery.CreatedBy = _Employee.AutoNumber
WHERE RIFQuery.LastFirst = _Clients.LASTNAME & ", " & _Clients.FIRSTNAME
AND RIFQuery.Autonumber = [lgRIF];
In your VBA code, you can use code like the following to grab the QueryDef object, assign the parameter value and open a recordset:
With CurrentDb.QueryDefs!qryRIF
!lgRIF = lgRIF
With .OpenRecordset()
' ... your code ...
.Close
End With
.Close
End With
I have Insert statement that inserts records from one table to another. SQL works, but not If field in WHERE clause is Null. No errors, just nothing gets inserted. How can I fix this ? This is what I have (fields are named same in both tables - Me.[Serial_No] represents bound field - textbox :
dim SQL as String
SQL = "INSERT INTO Table1 (Serial_No,Name,Description)" & _
"SELECT Table2.Serial_No, Table2.Name, Table2.Description" & _
" FROM Table2" & _
" WHERE Table2.Serial_No='" & Me.[Serial_No] & "'"
DoCmd.RunSQL SQL
I am not sure if this is the answer you require, it doesn't appear very logical.
If name and description are never null values then ensure that they are a unique composite key in your table. You can create these unique keys in the index button in table design view. Then you could look up the serial_no using the other field values. Seems a bit long winded to me but should give you the record you require.
dim SQL as String
dim varSerialNo as string
varSerialNo = dlookup("Serial_No", "table2", "Name='" & me.Name & "' AND Description='" & me.description & "'")
SQL = "INSERT INTO Table1 (Serial_No,Name,Description)" & _
"SELECT Table2.Serial_No, Table2.Name, Table2.Description" & _
" FROM Table2" & _
" WHERE Table2.Serial_No='" & varSerialNo & "'"
DoCmd.RunSQL SQL
I am trying to update the last record of table Log (the field with the latest TimeAccessed) given that TimeExited is null, and the computername is the same as the "cm" parameter. I have this but get error, "missing semicolon at end of sql statement"
what is wrong??
dbs.Execute "UPDATE Log " _
& "SET TimeExited = " & Format(CloseTime, "\#hh:mm:ss AMPM\#") _
& " WHERE TimeExited is NULL AND ComputerName = '" & cm & "'" _
& " ORDER BY TimeAccessed DESC" _
& " LIMIT 1; "
nothing wrong with first 2 lines, work perfectly fine, it's the last two that give problems
Access SQL doesn't use LIMIT n it uses TOP n, and as mentioned in the other question cited in the comments to your question, you aren't allowed to use TOP in the way you've described. Instead, you'll need to do something along these lines:
UPDATE Log
SET TimeExited = CloseTime
WHERE TimeExited IS NULL
AND ComputerName='r2d2'
AND TimeAccessed IN
(
SELECT TOP 1 TimeAccessed
FROM Log
WHERE TimeExited IS NULL
AND ComputerName='r2d2'
ORDER BY TimeAccessed DESC
)
I have the unfortunate task of having to import data from excel into a database on a regular basis. The table looks something like this:
IssueID References
1234 DocID1<cr>DocID2<cr>DocID3
1235 DocID1
1236 DocID2
1237 DocID2<cr>DocID3
References is a multi-line text field. What I'm trying to do is create a Docs table with one-to-many relationship to the Issue table, rather than having these multi-line references.
I have the following tables defined:
Issue: IssueKey, IssueID, IssueFields
Doc: DocKey, DocID, DocRev, DocOwner, etc
DocLink: LinkKey, DocKey, IssueKey
Since this will be run repeatedly, the Doc table will already exist with the DocIDs defined. So, what I want to do is have a query or VBA code search for each DocID in the References column and add a link based on IssueID if one does not already exist.
Simple, Right?
Jeff
Clarifications:
1) I had a third column called "Val1" to show that there were other columns, but that seemed to confuse the issue. There are actually many (way to many, most ignored) columns in the source table, but I only care about the two above.
2) I don't have to parse for a delimiter or anything too paranoid: References contains one or more uniquely defined document reference numbers (stored as text). So, a LIKE filter will turn up the list of IssueIDs on a case by case basis.
3) Here is an example of acceptable output:
IssueID References
1234 DocID1
1234 DocID2
1234 DocID3
1235 DocID1
1236 DocID2
1237 DocID2
1237 DocID3
The ideal solution would take the original excel table (top) and these two tables:
IssueKey IssueID
1 1234
2 1235
3 1236
4 1237
DocKey DocID
1 DocID1
2 DocID2
3 DocID3
And populate/update the link table:
LinkKey IssueKey DocKey
1 1 1
2 1 2
3 1 3
4 2 1
5 3 2
6 3 3
4) Here is an example of what I expected for a solution (creates #3 above). Unfortunately it crashes Access, so I can't tell if the syntax is correct (edited to reflect field names above).
SELECT Q1.IssueID, D1.DocID
FROM Docs AS D1, Issues AS Q1
WHERE Q1.IssueID IN
((SELECT Q2.IssueID from Issues AS Q2 where (Q2.References) Like D1.DocID));
5) Giving up on Access for the moment, I've got the following working in MySQL:
SELECT Q1.IssueID, D1.DocID
FROM Docs AS D1, Issues AS Q1
WHERE Q1.IssueID IN
((SELECT Q2.IssueID from Issues AS Q2 where (Q2.References) Like '%DocID1%'));
This works as I'd expect - I get every IssueID with a Reference to DocID1, repeated for every Doc in the table. With the above data it would look like:
IssueID References
1234 DocID1
1234 DocID2
1234 DocID3
1235 DocID1
1235 DocID2
1235 DocID3
Now I just want to replace the '%DocID1%' with '%'+D1.DocID+'%' - limiting the results to those document IDs which actually have a match. For some reason I'm getting zero records when I do this - I think I have the syntax for putting wildcards on the correlated field wrong.
6) The following works to provide #3 above in MySQL, but the same query translated to access crashes it:
SELECT Q1.IssueID, D1.DocID
FROM Docs AS D1, Issues AS Q1
WHERE Q1.IssueID IN
((SELECT Q2.IssueID from Issues AS Q2 where (Q2.References) Like
CONCAT('%',D1.DocID,'%')));
[in access it becomes ('' & D1.DocID & '')]
Conclusion: Access sucks
This has been chosen as the answer:
Q2.References LIKE ("*" & D1.DocID & "*"));
However, I don't think this is safe.
Consider if one of the value for the column named 'References' contained this data:
DocID1<cr>DocID999<cr>DocID3
and a value DocID = 9 existed in the other table.
The problem here is that
"DocID1<cr>DocID999<cr>DocID3" LIKE "*" & "DocID9" & "*"
will evaluate to TRUE, which is probably undesirable.
To address this problem, I think the values in the search/join condition should be made safe by surrounding the values using the delimiter character e.g.
(CHR(13) & Q2.References & CHR(13)) LIKE ("*" & CHR(13) & D1.DocID & CHR(13) & "*"));
Since this is to run repeatedly, I would ask (strongly suggest) they provide me a proper file where the issueID and valid appear on every line. This is much easier to process. You need to know for sure what the values for these fields are to properly import to your system.
Based on the comments: IN SQL Server you can would build a function to split the data based on the charindex for commas. If you search Google for fn_split, you will find a sample of this. Not sure how you would do this in Access but it would probably be an interative process where you look for the last comma and move everything past it to a holding table and then get rid of the command, then do again until there are no more commas. It iseasiest to do imports like this to staging tables where you can manipulate the data the way you need it and then put the final result into your real tables.
My first choice would be to put together a quick application in C# or VB.Net to handle this.
If that wasn't viable, I'd have an "Import" table which took everything as is. Then I would use a cursor to iterate the records in the table. Inside the cursor I'd keep track of the IssueId and Val1 and parse the References column to create my child records. This part I'd package into a stored procedure.
I suggest that you research SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). This tool was created to do this kind of data import/export as quickly as possible with as little code.
Read about it. Do some hands on labs to see if any examples are close to what your trying to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server_Integration_Services
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b1145e7a-a4e3-4d14-b1e7-d1d823b6a447&displaylang=en
Do you mean (typed, not tested):
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Dim rsIn As DAO.Recordset ''Or ADO if you link directly to Excel
Set rs=CurrentDB.OpenRecordset( _
"SELECT * FROM DocLinks dl INNER JOIN Docs d ON dl.DocKey=d.DocKey")
Do While Not rsIn.EOF
astrDocs=Split(rsIn!References, vbCrLf)
For Each strDoc In astrDocs
rs.FindFirst "DocID='" & strDoc & "'"
If rs.NoMatch Then
strSQL="INSERT INTO DocLinks (DocID, IssueID) " _
& "VALUES ('" strDoc & "'," & rsIn!IssueID & ")"
CurrentDB.Execute strSQL, dbFailOnError
End If
Next
rsIn.MoveNext
Loop
EDIT re COMMENTS
If the DocIDs are of a fixed length, you could consider something on these lines:
SELECT Sequence.Seq
, ImportTable.IssueID
, Mid(Replace([References],"<cr>",""),[seq],6) AS Docs
FROM Sequence, ImportTable
WHERE ([seq]+5) Mod 6=0)
AND Mid(Replace([References],"<cr>",""),[seq],6))<>""
AND Mid(Replace([References],"<cr>",""),[seq],6))
Not In (SELECT DocID FROM Docs)
You will need a sequence table with integers from 1 to at least max length of Reference.
This can easily be done in SQL. I have written a TVF (table-valued function) specifically for line-splitting text that demonstrates how:
ALTER function [dbo].[fnSplit3](
#parameter varchar(Max) -- the string to split
, #Seperator Varchar(64) -- the string to use as a seperator
)
RETURNS #Items TABLE(
ID INT -- the element number
, item VARCHAR(8000) -- the split-out string element
, OffSet int -- the original offest
--( not entirley accurate if LEN(#Seperator) > 1 because of the Replace() )
)
AS
BEGIN
/*
"Monster" Split in SQL Server 2005
From Jeff Moden, 2008/05/22
BYoung, 2008/06/18: Modified to be a Table-Valued Function
And to handle CL/LF or LF-only line breaks
Test: (scripts all procs & views in master)
Select Lines.Item
From Master.sys.syscomments C
CROSS APPLY dbo.fnSplit3(C.text, char(13)+char(10)) Lines
Order by C.ID, Lines.ID
Test2: (scripts all triggers in your database)
Select Lines.Item
From sys.sql_modules M
Join sys.objects O on O.object_id = M.object_id
CROSS APPLY dbo.fnSplit3(M.definition, char(13)+char(10)) Lines
Where O.Type = 'TR'
Order by O.create_date, Lines.ID
*/
Declare #Sep char(1)
Set #Sep = char(10) --our seperator character (convenient, doesnt affect performance)
--NOTE: we make the #Sep character LF so that we will automatically
-- parse out rogue LF-only line breaks.
--===== Add start and end seprators to the Parameter so we can handle
-- all the elements the same way
-- Also change the seperator expressions to our seperator
-- character to keep all offsets = 1
SET #Parameter = #Sep+ Replace(#Parameter,#Seperator,#Sep) +#Sep
-- This reduces run-time about 10%
;WITH cteTally AS
(--==== Create a Tally CTE from 1 to whatever the length
-- of the parameter is
SELECT TOP (LEN(#Parameter))
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY t1.object_id) AS N
FROM Master.sys.system_Columns t1
CROSS JOIN Master.sys.system_Columns t2
)
INSERT into #Items
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY N) AS Number,
SUBSTRING(#Parameter, N+1, CHARINDEX(#Sep, #Parameter, N+1)-N-1) AS Value
, N+1
FROM cteTally
WHERE N < LEN(#Parameter)
AND SUBSTRING(#Parameter, N, 1) = #Sep --Notice how we find the seperator
Return
END
In order to use this with your current table & data do this:
SELECT Issues.IssueID, Lines.Item as Reference
From Issues
Cross Apply dbo.fnSplit3(Issues.Reference, char(13)) Lines
Order By IssueID, Reference
I'm having problems coming up with a set-based SQL solution here. I've done this kind of thing before, I had to refresh my memory somewhat, but I'm running into a problem. I think it's an issue (feature/bug?) with the engine but I could be doing something daft. Perhaps someone intimate with Jet/ACE and who can read VBA can take a look at the code at the end of this answer and hopefully take this forward...?
The basic approach is to use a Sequence table of integers with the MID() expression to parse the data column (which I've renamed to MyReferences because REFERENCES is a SQL keyword).
Here's some MS Access VBA to recreate the test tables/data using SQL DDL/DML. Notice the first SELECT query returns sub-strings and star- and end delimiters; obviously, we're looking for the row(s) where both delimiters are the delimiting character, CHR(13) in this case. The second SELECT query merely adds search conditions for the desired delimiters but errors with 'Invalid procedure call'; this happens when the MID() expression is called using invalid parameter values e.g.
SELECT MID('A', 0, 0)
I guess what is happening is the optimizer is not using the subquery as a 'shortcut' and instead is evaluating the MID() expression before the search conditions from Sequence table. If so it's a bit dumb and I can't think of a way of forcing the order of evaluation.
So, is is my or the engine at fault here?
Sub main()
Dim sql As String
sql = _
"DROP TABLE ImportTable;"
On Error Resume Next ' Table may not exist
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
On Error GoTo 0
sql = _
"DROP TABLE Sequence;"
On Error Resume Next ' Table may not exist
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
On Error GoTo 0
sql = _
"CREATE TABLE ImportTable ( " & _
"IssueID INTEGER NOT NULL UNIQUE, MyReferences VARCHAR(90) NOT NULL);"
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
sql = _
"INSERT INTO ImportTable VALUES (1234, 'DocID1' & Chr(13) & 'DocID22' & Chr(13) & 'DocID3');"
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
sql = _
"CREATE TABLE Sequence (seq INTEGER NOT NULL UNIQUE);"
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
sql = _
"INSERT INTO Sequence VALUES (-1);"
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
sql = _
"INSERT INTO [Sequence] (seq) SELECT Units.nbr + Tens.nbr" & _
" FROM ( SELECT" & _
" nbr FROM ( SELECT 0 AS nbr FROM [Sequence] UNION" & _
" ALL SELECT 1 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 2 FROM" & _
" [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 3 FROM [Sequence] UNION" & _
" ALL SELECT 4 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 5 FROM" & _
" [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 6 FROM [Sequence] UNION" & _
" ALL SELECT 7 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 8 FROM" & _
" [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 9 FROM [Sequence] ) AS" & _
" Digits ) AS Units, ( SELECT nbr * 10 AS nbr FROM" & _
" ( SELECT 0 AS nbr FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT" & _
" 1 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 2 FROM [Sequence]" & _
" UNION ALL SELECT 3 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT" & _
" 4 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 5 FROM [Sequence]" & _
" UNION ALL SELECT 6 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT" & _
" 7 FROM [Sequence] UNION ALL SELECT 8 FROM [Sequence]" & _
" UNION ALL SELECT 9 FROM [Sequence] ) AS Digits )" & _
" AS Tens;"
CurrentProject.Connection.Execute sql
sql = _
"SELECT DT1.IssueID, DT1.parsed_text, DT1.delimiter_1, DT1.delimiter_2 " & _
"FROM ( " & _
"SELECT I1.IssueID, MID(I1.MyReferences, S1.seq, S2.seq - S1.seq - LEN(CHR(13))) AS parsed_text, " & _
" MID(CHR(13) & I1.MyReferences & CHR(13), S1.seq, LEN(CHR(13))) AS delimiter_1, " & _
" MID(CHR(13) & I1.MyReferences & CHR(13), S2.seq, LEN(CHR(13))) AS delimiter_2 " & _
"FROM ImportTable AS I1, Sequence AS S1, Sequence AS S2 " & _
"WHERE S1.seq < S2.seq " & _
"AND S2.seq - S1.seq - LEN(CHR(13)) > 0 " & _
"AND S1.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(CHR(13)) + LEN(I1.MyReferences) + LEN(CHR(13)) " & _
"AND S2.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(CHR(13)) + LEN(I1.MyReferences) + LEN(CHR(13)) " & _
") AS DT1;"
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
Set rs = CurrentProject.Connection.Execute(sql)
MsgBox rs.GetString
sql = _
"SELECT DT1.IssueID, DT1.parsed_text, DT1.delimiter_1, DT1.delimiter_2 " & _
"FROM ( " & _
"SELECT I1.IssueID, MID(I1.MyReferences, S1.seq, S2.seq - S1.seq - LEN(CHR(13))) AS parsed_text, " & _
" MID(CHR(13) & I1.MyReferences & CHR(13), S1.seq, LEN(CHR(13))) AS delimiter_1, " & _
" MID(CHR(13) & I1.MyReferences & CHR(13), S2.seq, LEN(CHR(13))) AS delimiter_2 " & _
"FROM ImportTable AS I1, Sequence AS S1, Sequence AS S2 " & _
"WHERE S1.seq < S2.seq " & _
"AND S2.seq - S1.seq - LEN(CHR(13)) > 0 " & _
"AND S1.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(CHR(13)) + LEN(I1.MyReferences) + LEN(CHR(13)) " & _
"AND S2.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(CHR(13)) + LEN(I1.MyReferences) + LEN(CHR(13)) " & _
") AS DT1 " & _
"WHERE DT1.delimiter_1 = CHR(13) " & _
"AND DT1.delimiter_2 = CHR(13);"
Set rs = CurrentProject.Connection.Execute(sql)
MsgBox rs.GetString
End Sub
FWIW here's a PROCEDURE I wrote years ago for parsing a delimited list into a table. It seems to work OK for values up to 255 characters; any more and you get a very nasty ACE/Jet engine error. Again, I don't see what the problem is other than the engine can't cope! Anyhow, my point is that this works (for small values) and I can't figure out why I can't adapt it to the problem at hand:
CREATE PROCEDURE ListToTable
(
delimted_text MEMO,
delimiter VARCHAR(4) = ','
)
AS
SELECT MID(I1.input_string, S1.seq, MIN(S2.seq) - S1.seq - LEN(delimiter)) AS param
FROM
(
SELECT DISTINCT delimted_text AS input_string
FROM Sequence AS S3
WHERE S3.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(delimted_text)
) AS I1, Sequence AS S1, Sequence AS S2
WHERE MID(delimiter & I1.input_string & delimiter, S1.seq, LEN(delimiter)) = delimiter
AND MID(delimiter & I1.input_string & delimiter, S2.seq, LEN(delimiter)) = delimiter
AND S1.seq < S2.seq
AND S1.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(delimiter) + LEN(delimted_text) + LEN(delimiter)
AND S2.seq BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(delimiter) + LEN(delimted_text) + LEN(delimiter)
GROUP
BY I1.input_string, S1.seq
HAVING LEN(MID(I1.input_string, S1.seq, MAX(S2.seq) - S1.seq - LEN(delimiter))) > 0;
I think using the word "parse" in the title has confused the crap out of everyone. The bug in Access was that a correlated query performed on a query (instead of a table) causes a hang. So instead, I created a temporary table that ads the References column (with the multi-line text) to the Issues table so I have access to the other fields. The final query creates the link table described above, along with the DocID and IssueID for reference:
SELECT Q1.IssueID, Q1.IssueKey, D1.DocKey, D1.DocID
FROM Issues AS Q1, Documents AS D1
WHERE Q1.IssueID in
(SELECT Q2.IssueID FROM Issues AS Q2 WHERE Q2.References LIKE ("*" & D1.DocID & "*"));
The inner select pulls the list of issues which has a given document in the references column. The outer select performs this for each document, resulting in the aggregate list.