query variable string text with counts

[Randy K]

I have a table with some 35000 records and I need some help sorting it
out.
The goal is to get counts of failures modes oraganized by serial
number. the table is set up roughly like this.
s/n failure
01 failure A description A
01 failure A description B
01 failure B description A
01 failure B description A
02 failure A description B
02 failure A description B
02 failure B description A

I can quite easily get a count of all unique failures (failure +
description)by s/n number is a crosstab query. This results with a
look of:
01 02
failure A description A 1
failure A description B 1 2
failure B description A 2 1

My problem occurs when I try to get counts strickly by failure. The
result I am looking for would appear as follows:
01 02
Failure A 2 2
Failure B 2 1

It should be noted that the failure field, which includes failure and
description) is a memo field with string anywhere from 100 to 3000
characters. Also, I know pretty much nothing of SQL and VB.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Randy K

[Tim Mills-Groninger]

Make a totals query that count the instances of each failure/description
combination. Use that query as the source for a crosstab query. The
crosstab wizard will do a wonder job of helping you through that step

hth,
tim mills-groninger

"Randy K" <as*****@newport-consulting.com> wrote in message
news:85**************************@posting.google.c om...

I have a table with some 35000 records and I need some help sorting it
out.
The goal is to get counts of failures modes oraganized by serial
number. the table is set up roughly like this.
s/n failure
01 failure A description A
01 failure A description B
01 failure B description A
01 failure B description A
02 failure A description B
02 failure A description B
02 failure B description A

I can quite easily get a count of all unique failures (failure +
description)by s/n number is a crosstab query. This results with a
look of:
01 02
failure A description A 1
failure A description B 1 2
failure B description A 2 1

My problem occurs when I try to get counts strickly by failure. The
result I am looking for would appear as follows:
01 02
Failure A 2 2
Failure B 2 1

It should be noted that the failure field, which includes failure and
description) is a memo field with string anywhere from 100 to 3000
characters. Also, I know pretty much nothing of SQL and VB.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Randy K