What is the most important scientific question of our time? [more inside]
posted by Demogorgon on Oct 12, 2009 - 44 answers

Should I maintain double spacing in an agent query email? Submission guidelines ask for the first 5 pages of my manuscript. How faithful should I be to the actual document? [more inside]
posted by bobbyno on Sep 17, 2009 - 4 answers

Screenplay question. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Sep 4, 2009 - 11 answers

How does one submit a professional query to a national magazine? [more inside]
posted by goalyeehah on Jul 22, 2009 - 5 answers

Please help me simplify a complicated mysql update [more inside]
posted by special-k on Mar 27, 2009 - 19 answers

How do I put a wildcard into the truepart of an IIf statement of an MS Access 2003 query criteria? [more inside]
posted by JeremiahBritt on Feb 11, 2009 - 9 answers

Microsoft Access query problem - Comparing two similar tables that don't match up well. It's lists of classes in a collection of locations from two consecutive years, and what I need is to show the class fees side by side for any class that happened in the same location both years. [more inside]
posted by dnash on Feb 5, 2009 - 13 answers

What kind of MySQL query should I use to inventory this table? Details inside... [more inside]
posted by crapmatic on Dec 10, 2008 - 5 answers

OK, I've posted on this subject before. Each time, I'm a little further along. Here is where I am right now. I've been working on a book since March. The idea upon which the book is based has been getting a lot of attention recently and has consistently been in the news for about four years. [more inside]
posted by CollectiveMind on Dec 8, 2008 - 5 answers

I'm trying to come up with humorous examples of search engines making query suggestions. For example, Google might suggest "how to cook a baby" when you search for "baby". I've seen some posted around the internet before, but can't seem to find them now. Does anyone have such links/examples? They don't have to be currently working examples.
posted by lpctstr; on Nov 29, 2008 - 15 answers

I have a MySQL table with about 100,000 items in it. Question about setting up indexes for efficient querying. [more inside]
posted by maxwelton on Oct 15, 2008 - 8 answers

I've got what should be an uber-simple SQL question.... [more inside]
posted by omnipotentq on Jul 7, 2008 - 8 answers

Librarians / Researchers / Gale PowerSearch users/developers! How do I use the word count limit successfully? [more inside]
posted by hobbes on May 9, 2008 - 2 answers

I have an Access 2007 database with client information and I need to make it do two relatively simple tasks. [more inside]
posted by desjardins on Apr 11, 2008 - 6 answers

MySQL question: Given a table with a datetime column and several additional columns which may or may not be null, is there an easy way to select the most recent previous non-null value of each column given a specific date? [more inside]
posted by Nothing on Mar 13, 2008 - 10 answers

Using Windows to query Unix RPC rquota? [more inside]
posted by lundman on Mar 10, 2008 - 7 answers

MYSQL newbie needs some help with a crazy query! (Joins, foreign keys, and bears "oh my!") [more inside]
posted by lucidreamstate on Feb 25, 2008 - 4 answers

SQL Filter: What query can I use to count the number of times a word appears in a text field? [more inside]
posted by Wild_Eep on Feb 21, 2008 - 6 answers

How do I group values by a variable in Excel 2007? Essentially, I want to run a query. [more inside]
posted by desjardins on Jan 25, 2008 - 8 answers

Please help me understand what happens when I click the cancel query button in SQL Server Management Studio. [more inside]
posted by smithygreg on Nov 29, 2007 - 3 answers

I'm looking for something sorta like plone or drupal, but that supports structured documents (e.g. per an XML DOM or something similar) and allows for component-wise searching of those documents. [more inside]
posted by badstone on Oct 11, 2007 - 2 answers

Access SQL Query - I have multiple individuals each with an address. I need to make mailing labels, but if two or more people share an address, I would only like one label. [more inside]
posted by odinsdream on Apr 18, 2007 - 9 answers

Databasefilter: I'm a self-taught 'DBA' (I use quotes so as to not offend those who have this knowledge through a paid education). I'm having an efficiency problem with a few of my tables, and I thought maybe one or two of you could help. [more inside]
posted by thanotopsis on Jan 31, 2007 - 20 answers

How do I update rows in a table in a SQL*Server 2005 database with data from another row in the same table? [more inside]
posted by apark on Jan 24, 2007 - 5 answers

Microsoft Access. An SQL "GROUP BY" query. How do I generate the mode of the values that it's grouping, when I want averages in other multiple fields? [more inside]
posted by Jimbob on Dec 13, 2006 - 3 answers

Help with MS Access needed please - I'm told it should be a fairly simple query to conduct, but I don't think I'm upto the task solo. Can the hive mind help? [more inside]
posted by dance on Nov 18, 2006 - 12 answers

What is the easiest way to get this data into a MySQL database? [more inside]
posted by rlef98 on Nov 2, 2006 - 19 answers

I'm writing an query in MS Access to get column 1 = product ID, column 2 = product Description. However, the description field has addtional spec data that I don't need. I want to remove anything after the first word, meaning remove after the first blank space. Example: Prod ID      Prod Desc 10-362-3     Packing DT 12-345-5     Seal XT L-23 Desired result: 10-362-3     Packing 12-345-5     Seal I tried to use FIND or SEARCH functions to identify the position of the first blank space and to truncate everything after that. However, Access does not recoganize either FIND or SEARCH. Does anyone have any idea how to accomplish this? Thanks.
posted by dy on Sep 20, 2006 - 4 answers

I have a question about finding the longest sequence in a set of numbers. [more inside]
posted by maxwelton on Sep 2, 2006 - 13 answers

Filling Sparse Data In An SQL Query [more inside]
posted by boo_radley on Aug 7, 2006 - 5 answers

I have two tables in access, linked by a one to many relationship. I've made a query that pulls the information I want from both tables into one place. But now I can't type any data into the query or the form I made based on the query. Why not? [more inside]
posted by misanthropicsarah on Jul 16, 2006 - 5 answers

I need help converting a Postgres-specific SQL query to MySQL [more inside]
posted by mcstayinskool on Jul 14, 2006 - 14 answers

Calling MS Access wizards... A batch find and replace conundrum. [more inside]
posted by snailer on Jul 11, 2006 - 13 answers

Yet another Access Query Question. Similar to my other question, but even more frustrating. I need to craft a query that will tally values across many fields and entries. [more inside]
posted by JonnyRotten on Jun 21, 2006 - 27 answers

I have a access query that is making me tear my hair out. My database has 40 fields that have three possible values (OK, NG, NA). I need to list only the entries that have NG in any one of those 40 fields. [more inside]
posted by JonnyRotten on May 27, 2006 - 23 answers

Infuriating Microsoft Access questionfilter: I have a database that I inherited in which queries are set up to pull records which have dates of birth between certain dates. It works right in one database but is not working right in another, for a very particular reason.. [more inside]
posted by By The Grace of God on May 2, 2006 - 7 answers

MSExcel: how to place data in one cell from an ODBC source based on data in another cell? [more inside]
posted by randomstriker on Apr 26, 2006 - 1 answer

I'm looking for a software tool that will ingest a large XML file, and allow me to write sql-like queries against it for both summary reporting, as well as detailed reports. [more inside]
posted by nomisxid on Feb 15, 2006 - 31 answers

i have a list of private companies and am looking to automate the collection of the ceo name for each one.
posted by finnstones on Dec 30, 2005 - 8 answers

Google syntax query. So: I want to be able to find all the links to Site X, while filtering out all internal links from within Site X. I'm using [link:sitex.org -site:sitex.org] as my query and get about 3 results. However I know there are thousands of links out there. Others seem to have had the same problem. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
posted by carter on Dec 19, 2005 - 9 answers

How do I write arbitrary SQL queries in Ruby on Rails? [more inside]
posted by smackfu on Dec 13, 2005 - 9 answers

I need help with what I hope is a fairly simple mySQL query question. [more inside]
posted by Asparagirl on Nov 29, 2005 - 18 answers

I currently have a very low level of SQL knowledge (I can construct simple queries for multiple tables, but I start to fall apart on the difference between inner and outer joins). I need to learn to create multiple join SQL queries and Dynamic SQL/Stored Procedures on MS SQL Server 2000 in a short period of time. I'd also like to learn to use MS Query Analyzer more efficiently. Is there one book or online resource that is best for this? Additionally, are there alternatives to using MS Query Analyzer, or is that really *the* tool? [more inside]
posted by de void on Jul 12, 2005 - 12 answers

I have 30,000 Mileage Plus airmiles on United and about the same number of Dividend Miles on US Airways. Both are members of the Star Alliance. Can I combine both sets of airmiles to buy a transatlantic flight on either (or another) airline? Both airlines say the airmiles are 'not transferable' yet their websites say I can use airmiles earned with any Star Alliance partner to buy other products or services.
posted by essexjan on Apr 23, 2005 - 7 answers

Database Query [+] [more inside]
posted by benjh on Jan 24, 2005 - 10 answers

I am looking for an index data structure and query algorithm to solve a specific problem. Each row in the table represents a range, with a start/end value; I want to look up all the rows that overlap a certain value. [more inside]
posted by Mars Saxman on Oct 7, 2004 - 13 answers

Say I have a database DATA.MDB
Inside DATA.MDB there is a table called ImageTable.
In this table is a field named fimageOriginalFilePath. There are aprox 4000 entries.
Each entry holds an absolute path to a directory on the C drive. For example C:\pictures\10131009
I want to automatically replace the first character of each entry with the letter F. So that each path points to the F drive.
Can it be done? Can it be done without MS Access? Can it be done by a person with no programing skills, knowledge of databases, or understanding of SQL queries and the like? If so, how? Thank you all. [more inside]
posted by Grod on Apr 17, 2004 - 14 answers