>>Hi,
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>>I am considering a feature for my app that would allow user combining two records into one. For example, say in the parts table they have two pars "1234" and "1234A" and at some point (after years of use) they realize that this is one and the same part. They can't rename one into the other because another record of unique entry already exists. They can't delete one because it has child records (transactions, P.O.s etc.). So I am thinking of writing a routine that would do it in code. Does it make sense? What I mean is, do others (as other developers on this message board) have routines that allow combining two records with different values in unique field into one? TIA.
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>Just be VERY certain that those 2 records were identical in history as well -
>which depending on the data schema utilized may not be clear to the operator.

The responsibility is on the operator - and for that purpose, the app can only offer to show some history of both records.

I once had to have such a routine in the app from the beginning, because of the nature of the matter. It was a walk-in hospital, where they would, at times, have to accept unidentified patients - crash victims, drunks, newborns - and assign them temporary IDs, and maybe later add some personal data. Months or years later, this person would come again with regular papers, someone would enter the data from there, and then somehow it would be revealed that this "new" patient has history - which was then attached using this routine.