file mapping then export

Hello all,
  I suppose this is more of a design question than something specific to Access, either way it’s causing me a bit of a headache! I have a text file which I wish to import into access called InfoLease_Raw (input file) this is data that comes of a mainframe system and is basically the results of a query that I wrote that I thought best fitted the requirements of our out put file which is required by a third party.
Anyway I know from past emails to this group that I should create an output table (now named OutPut_To_CarData) and then join the input table to the out put using a common field named Contract_number. For the transfer purpose I have out together a simple append query and this works fine. However two problems have emerged. Firstly within a field named agreement_type we have 4 sub categories (i.e. CS, LP, TL and XX); the output file has 10 required categories – I am rather unsure what I should do here. I know what groupings should match (i.e. CS might go into 1,2,5 and 9) but how could this be done within a query. Should this be this an ‘iif in the append query or a look up table?
Lastly the rules for the output table are very strict as regarding field lengths and type. Would it be prudent to ensure that the output table can only accept a certain number of characters from the input table through the field size property?
Cheer as always
Sean

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Before you buy. Received on Mon Dec 04 2000 - 18:01:00 CET