Common Definitions and Terms for Access

Table (Entity) – Collection of fields that describe a person, place, object, event, or idea.

Field (Attribute) – Single characteristic or attribute of a person, place, object, event, or idea.
Each field contains one entry of data, NOT information.

Field Value – A specific value, or content, of a field; only one entry can be made per field

Record – A collection of fields in a table, typically aligned in a row of a table in Datasheet

View.

DataType – The column in Design View that allows you to determine what type of data can
only be entered into a field, when in Datasheet View. For example, a Number DataType can
only contain numbers, nothing else. Short Text can contain 255 characters, which can be
anything you type on the keyboard. Date/Time can only contain either dates or times within
the field.

Primary key – A field, or a collection of fields, whose values uniquely identify each record in
a table; no two records can contain the same value for the primary key field. They are
nonrepeating, typically numerical, but are now becoming more alphanumerical.

For example: Social Security numbers, your student ID number, cell phone numbers, email
addresses, a Kroger Plus card. Only one of each of these exist out in the world.

Foreign key – A primary key from one table that appears on another table as a regular field;
the purpose of placing the same field in another table is to create a relationship between
the two tables which allows us to create queries and answer specific business questions.
Foreign keys can repeat.

For example: every time you shop at Kroger, you create an entry where you have shopped
on a certain date, time, day of the week, and have used a specific method of payment (cash,
check, credit card). Each instance of a sales transaction starts with the Sales Transaction
number field and then adds in your Kroger Plus card membership number into the next
column (field) in the database. Each time you shop at Kroger, a new Sales Transaction
number is created (this is the Primary key) and the Kroger Plus card membership number (is
the Foreign key) repeats each entry. Kroger can then use the Relationship between the
Sales Transaction table and the Customer table to create a link between the two fields using
the Kroger Plus card membership number as the connecting field.
 Referential Integrity – The process, during the creation of Relationships between tables,
where the DBMS checks to make sure that every Foreign key (FK) has a matching Primary
key (PK). If a FK appears without a matching PK, there can be potential data entry
mismatch, or even potential for someone to create a fake account in which to process
transactions without a company being aware of it.

Database Management System (DBMS) – a software program that lets you create
databases and then manipulate data in them. Most databases today are called relational
databases. The DBMS inside of Access is called the Jet Engine.

MIS 301,University of Dayton Author: Pat Servé 2016