Append Query duplicates some columns

[wi11iamr]

Hi there,

I have two identical tables (daya from FY2016 and FY2017) and am using an Append Query to merge them into a new combined table.

Using the Append Query function, there are 4 columns which are duplicated at the end of my new table. Having read up on this it's my understanding that this happens when the columns in the 2nd tabel have no match in the first table, and they are then added as new columns to the combined table.

Here's the kicker - I have checked (and triple checked) that the column names and data types are exactly the same. Of my ~40 columns, only these 4 give me a problem.

Any suggestions on where I could go and dig a little deeper to uncover my problem?

Thanks

William R.

[hourir2]

Thanks for this, helped me out!!

[wi11iamr · Accepted solution]

Oh my word...!!!

So, before I basj myself over the head, let me share my mistake with you...

The issue was quite definitely different column names - there were some trailing spaces in the names of the 4 columns in my 2nd table. I had however checked for this earlier, within Excel, using a pattern match to identify any spelling differences, howeve it appears that the Excel pattern match excluded trailing spaces, and thus did not alert me to the fact that the column names were in fact not the same.

Ah well, thanks for listening... 😉

[WillHopkins]

Don't beat yourself up too badly. I'd been trying to figure this out for a few hours and your post put me on the road to a sloution. I have no idea where the extra spaces originate but the result is a rather annoying and time consuming piece of debugging. Thanks again. 

[jpt1228]

Thanks for this - I ran into the same thing and couldnt figure out why. The table had a space after the last letter of the column name. All fixed!