I might now be tempted to dip my feet further into the SQL pool.
Go for it. Well worth the effort for tidying up your Aircraft table.
If you want any help re scripts just shout. As I say I'm not a SQL expert but have got to grips with enough to do what I need to for these purposes. Here's a starter for you:
Run this script
CREATE TABLE aircraft2
(
MS varchar(6),
AR varchar(50),
AT varchar(80),
AN varchar(80),
AC varchar(80),
CN varchar(80),
PT varchar(80),
LK varchar(80),
PT2 varchar(80),
LK2 varchar(80)
)This will create a second aircraft table called 'aircraft2' with the same structure as the original (you can find the structure for a table by looking under the Database Structure tab)
Now run this script
INSERT INTO aircraft2 (MS,AR,AT,AN,AC,CN,PT,LK,PT2,LK2)
SELECT MS,AR,AT,AN,AC,CN,PT,LK,PT2,LK2
FROM aircraft
WHERE AT LIKE '...'This will make a COPY (in aircraft2) of all the records (in aircraft) where the aircraft short type is set to ... - these aircraft won't display a sillouhette when seen in the list within RB. Browse through this table and just look how many there are! If you double click on any cell when browsing a new box will open that allows you to manually change the data within it. Click the 'Apply Changes' button to save any changes you make.
To put your changes back into the original aircraft table run
REPLACE INTO aircraft (MS,AR,AT,AN,AC,CN,PT,LK,PT2,LK2)
SELECT MS,AR,AT,AN,AC,CN,PT,LK,PT2,LK2
FROM aircraft2To delete the records from the aircraft2 table use
DELETE FROM aircraft2 to delete all records or add a second line such as
WHERE AC LIKE 'British Airways' to only delete records where the company (AC field) is set to British Airways. You can also use wildcards:
WHERE AC LIKE 'British%' any company starting with 'British'
WHERE AC LIKE '%Airways' any company ending with 'Airways' or
WHERE AC LIKE '%Air%' any company name containing the string 'Air' anywhere in the AC field. The search string isn't case sensitive by the way. In fact neither is the code but it's easier to understand if written like this.
To delete the aircraft2 table just use
DROP TABLE aircraft2 - no need to delete the records from it first
Modifying the above you could make a copy of all the aircraft that have the AT field set as 'BE4X' into aircraft2 for you to edit. There's no sillouhette for those and they should be 'BE40'. To change all records where the AT field is BE4X you could run the following script
UPDATE aircraft2
SET AT = 'BE40'
WHERE AT = 'BE4X'- missing the WHERE line off would set the AT field for EVERY record currently in aircraft2 to BE40.
Using the above you should have everything you need as a starting base to write your own scripts to do pretty much most changes you'll want to make. Take a copy of NavData, rename it, stick it somewhere out of the way and use it to practise on. Just don't blame me if you lose hours of your life tweaking the database :)
Oh yes, Golden Rule No. 1 - ALWAYS make a backup copy of NavData before editing just in case. I always make 2 copies - 1 as a backup and 1 to edit therefore never directly editing the one in the RB\data folder.
