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Introduction To Databases
Introduction To Databases
Introduction To Databases
INTRODUCTION TO DATABASES
In its simplest form, a database is a collection of information that is organized into a list.
Whenever you make a list of information, such as names, addresses, products, or invoices,
you are, in fact, creating database.
A database program lets you:
Store Information
Find Information
Analyze and Print information
Manage Information
Share Information
Databases usually consist of several parts. A Microsoft Access database may contain up to six
different database object types. The table on this page identifies the database objects that
you can use when creating Microsoft Access database. Some objects you will use all the time
(such as Tables), others you will hardly use (such as Modules).
Object Description
Table Tables store a database’s data in rows (records) and columns (fields .A
database must always contain at least one table where it can store
information-all the other database objects are optional.
Forms Forms are custom screens that provide an easy way to enter and view
data in a table or query.
Pages A special type of Web page designed for viewing and working with
Microsoft Access data from an Internet or Internet.
Macros Macros help you perform routine tasks by automating them into a
single command. For example, you could create a macro that
automatically opens and prints a report.
Database
window
Table
Object
bar
Database objects
Menu Description
File File-related commands to open, close, print, and create new files.
Edit Commands to copy, cut, paste, find, and replace text.
View Commands to change how the screen is displayed.
Insert Lists items that you can insert into a database, such as graphics and charts.
Tools Lists tools such the spell checker and macros. You can also change the
default for Microsoft Access options here.
Records Commands to add, delete, sort, and filter information.
Window Commands to display and arrange multiple windows (if you have more than
one file to open.)
Help For assistance or help
Keystroke Description
<Ctrl> + <O> Open a database
<Ctrl> + <W> Close a database
<Ctrl> + <P> Print current view
<Ctrl> + <Z> Undo
<F7> Check spelling
<Ctrl> + <+> New Record
<Ctrl> + <-> Delete record
<Ctrl> + <C> Copies he selected text or object to the Windows clipboard
<Ctrl> + <X> Cuts the selected text or object from its current location to the Windows clipboard
<Ctrl> + <V> Pastes any copied or cut text or object in the Windows clipboard to the current
location
<Ctrl> + <F> Find
<Ctrl> + <H> Find and replace
<Page Down> Next Screen
<Page Up> Previous Screen
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PLANNING A DATABASE
Planning is the first step in creating a database. You need to decide what you
want the tables to contain and how you want them to be accessed. The main
question to ask yourself is, “What data must be put into the database, to be able
to obtain the information I want?”
CREATING A DATABASE
1. Start Microsoft Access by clicking the Windows Start button and selecting
ProgramsMicrosoft Access from the Start menu.
The Microsoft Access Program appears with the Microsoft Access dialog box displayed.
The Microsoft Access dialog box gives you quick access to any database you have
worked on recently and allows you to create a new database.
2. Click the Database Wizard option, click OK, and click the Databases tab if necessary.
The New dialog box appears with the Database tab selected. Here you need to select
the type of database you want to create.
3. Type the name of database you want to create and click Create.
The first screen of the Database Wizard appears and describes the database it will
create for you.
4. Click Next to continue.
The next screen of the Database Wizard appears. This dialog box displays the standard
tables and fields that the Database Wizard is building for you. Click a table on the left
side of the dialog box to view its fields on the right side. If you want, you can add or
remove the standard fields from the database by checking or unchecking them.
5. Click Next to accept the Database Wizard’s standard tables and fields.
Next, you have to decide what your new database should look like. Access provides
you with several aesthetic styles to choose from. Click a style to see a sample for what
it looks like.
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6. Select the font style that you like best and click next.
Another screen and more aesthetic decisions to make. Here, you need to select the
font you want to use in your reports. You can preview each of the font styles by
clicking them.
7. Select the font style that you like best and click next.
8. Type the title of your database.
This title will appear on the heading of all the reports in your database.
9. Click Finish to create the new database.
10. Explore the tables, forms, and reports in the new database by clicking the various
buttons on the switchboard form.
Move on to the next step when you have seen enough of the new database.
11. Close the new database by selecting FileClose from the menu.
The advantage of creating a blank database is that it gives you the most flexibility and control
over your database design. The disadvantage of creating a blank database is that you have to
create every table, form, report, and query yourself.
How to create a blank database.
3. Navigate to the drive and folder where you want to save the new database, then
type the name in the File Name box and click Create.
Access creates a new database and saves it using the name you’ve typed. The Database
window appears when it’s finished. If you click the various database object tabs you will
notice that there aren’t any database objects in this database. You will have to create the
entire database yourself.
You use the Database window to create, open, modify, and manage all the different types of
objects in a database. The Database window contains tabs for each type of database object
1. TABLES
Tables are where a database stores all its information. All the other database objects-queries,
forms, reports, and macros-are merely tools to analyze and manipulate the information
stored in a table. Any of these other database objects are optional-but without tables a
database wouldn’t be a database. Each table in a database stores related information. Most
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databases have more than one table: each table is used to store a different type of
information.
For example, one table might contain a list of customers and their addresses, while another
table might contain any orders placed by the customers, while yet another table might
contain a list of products.
Tables are made up of groups of fields. A field is a specific type of information, such as a
person’s last name, address or phone number. Together, the related fields for each individual
person, place, or thing make up a single record. If your company has ten employees, your
employee table would have ten records-one for each employee.
If you’re new to Access, the easiest way to add a table to an existing database is with the
Table Wizard. The Table Wizard asks you a series of questions about what fields you want to
appear in your table and does the dirty work of creating a new table for you. The Table
Wizard can create a variety of different tables to store mailing lists, inventory, catalogs and
more.
incorporate into your table in the Sample Fields list. To add a field to your table double-
click the field or select the field and click the button. Click the button to add all the
sample fields to your table.
5. Click Next. The Table Wizard asks you to give your table a name and if you want to have,
Access set a primary key for you.
NOTE: If other tables exist in your database, another screen will appear, asking you how
this table relates to the other tables in your database.
6. Click Finish to create the new table.
The Table Wizard builds the table using the fields you selected and then opens the new
table-ready for your data input.
7. Close the table
Once you have created a table, you can modify it later in Design View. Design View allows
you to change the structure of a table by adding, deleting, and modifying its fields.
Because there are so many different types of data, Access offers several different types of
fields. A field’s data type determines the type of information that can be stored in a field.
Data Types lists the various data types available in Access. For example, you cannot enter
text into a number data type field.
Field Properties
Field Size Text fields: The maximum number of characters (up to 255) that can be entered in
the field. The default setting is 50.
A primary key is a special kind of indexed field that uniquely identifies each record in a table.
When you think about primary key fields think unique-each primary key value must be the
only one of its kind in a table. E.g. a customer ID or invoice number would be two good
examples of fields that could be used as a table used as a table’s primary key.
Here are some things you need to know about primary keys:
A table can only have one primary key.
The values in the primary key fields must be unique. AutoNumber fields automatically
add a new, unique number to each record in a table.
Every table you create should have a primary key because it helps keep your data
organized and easy to work with.
Yes/No, OLE, and hyperlink fields can’t be used as the primary key.
The primary key is normally a single field, but two or more fields can act together as
the primary key, so long as their combined values are unique.
Primary keys are especially important in creating relationships between tables.
To add a primary key to a table then make sure it is in design view. Select the fields you want
to use as a primary key then on edit menu click primary key or Click the Primary Key button
on the toolbar. A picture of a key appears at the beginning of the row. Now save the changes
made.
You can insert, delete, and reorder fields in your tables in Design view. Remember that in
Design view for tables, each row corresponds to a field. You add a field by inserting a new
row and delete a field by deleting its corresponding row by selecting on a row then insert
using insert menu or delete using edit menu.
You can enter a Default Value to specify a value that is automatically entered in a field when a
new record is created. For example, if most of your clients are from Texas, you could set the
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default value for the State field to “TX”. When a user adds a record to the table, they can
either accept the TX default value for the State field or enter their own value.
VALIDATING DATA
Without a doubt, data validation is thee most powerful tool you can use to prevent data entry
errors. With data validation, Access actually tests data to make sure that it conforms to what
you want to appear in the table. If the incoming data doesn’t meet your requirements,
Access kicks it out and displays an error message.
Data validation works best in number, currency, and date/time fields. You can create a
validation rule for text entries, but doing so can be complicated-especially if you want to test
a lot of text variables.
There are actually two boxes that relate to data validation. They are the:
Validation Rule box: Use to specify the requirements for data entered into the field.
Validation Text box: When data is entered that violates the validation rule you can
use the Validation Text box to specify the message to be modify and use in your table.
Creating data validation rules can be a little tricky-you create a data validation using the same
hard-to-remember operators that you use in filters and queries. Table 4-7: Data Validation
Examples contains some data validation that you can modify and use in your tables.
Consider the following table. It contains samples of the most common types of validation
rules. Feel free to copy, modify, or mix and match these examples to create your own
validation rules.
An Input Mask limits the amount and type of information that can be entered in a field.
There are two ways to create an input mask:
Click the Build button and have the Input Mask Wizard create the input mask for you
(the fast and easy way). The only problem with the Input Mask Wizard is that it can
only help you create input masks for phone numbers, Social Security numbers, zip
codes, and date and time fields.
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Create the input mask yourself by typing a series of characters in the Input Mask box
(the hard way). If you want to use this brutal method refer to Table 4-8: Input Mask
Characters to see what you have to enter to create an input mask.
Creating an input mask by hand is difficult but it can be done. You need to create the input
mask by entering the characters shown in the following table in the Input Mask box.
Character Description
0 Numbers 0 to 9 required; plus and minus signs not allowed
9 Number or space optional plus and minus signs not allowed
# Number or space optional plus and minus signs not allowed
.,:;-/ Decimal point, thousands, date, and time separators
A Letter or number Required
A Letter or number optional
L Letters A to Z required
? Letter or number optional
& Character or space required
C Character or space optional
< Converts the following characters to lowercase
> Converts the following characters to uppercase
! Displays characters from right to left, rather than Left to right
\ Displays the following input mask character. For Example, \* would display
*
Password Displays an asterisk (*) for Each character you type
Lookup fields are defiantly one of the coolest and most powerful features in Access. A lookup
field lets you pick a field’s entry from a list of values. Similar to its cousin the lookup list, a
value list displays list of values in a drop-down list. Unlike a lookup list, which displays data in
a table or query, a value list displays a list of options that you manually enter. A value list is
useful if you enter the same data in a field repeatedly. There are two ways that a lookup field
can get its list of values:
From a list of values or options that you enter yourself. For example you could add the
values FedEx, UPS, and Airborne to a field.
RELATIONSHIP
An association established between common fields (columns) in two tables. A relationship can
be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many.
In a relational database, relationships enable you to prevent redundant data. For example, if
you are designing a database that will track information about books you might have a table
called titles that stores information about each book, such as the book’s title, date of
publication, and publisher. There is also information you might want to store about the
publisher, such as the publisher's phone number, address, and zip code. If you were to store
all of this information in the titles table, the publisher’s phone number would be duplicated for
each title that the publisher prints.
A better solution is to store the publisher information only once in a separate table, publishers.
You would then put a pointer in the titles table that references an entry in the publisher table.
To make sure your data is not out of sync; you can enforce referential integrity between the
titles and publishers tables. Referential integrity relationships help to ensure information in one
table matches information in another. For example, each title in the titles table must be
associated with a specific publisher in the publisher’s table. A title cannot be added to the
database for a publisher that does not exist in the database.
Records in the Orders table that have the same Customer ID as a record in the Customer
table would be orders placed by that customer.
Benefits of Relationships
You will see many benefits by linking the tables in your database before you begin creating
forms, reports and queries.
One-to-Many Relationships
A one-to-many relationship is the most common type of relationship. In this type of
relationship, a row in table A can have many matching rows in table B, but a row in table B
can have only one matching row in table A. For example, the publishers and titles tables have a
one-to-many relationship: each publisher produces many titles, but each title comes from
only one publisher.
A one-to-many relationship is created if only one of the related columns is a primary key or
has a unique constraint.
Many-to-Many Relationships
In a many-to-many relationship, a row in table A can have many matching rows in table B, and
vice versa. Example is a relationship between distributors and products. i.e. one distributor
distributes many products and one product can be distributed by many distributors.
One-to-One Relationships
In a one-to-one relationship, a record in a table specifically relates to one record in another
table i.e. A can have no more than one matching row in table B, and vice versa. A one-to-one
relationship is created if both of the related columns are primary keys or have unique
constraints.
This type of relationship is not common because most information related in this way would
be all in one table. You might use a one-to-one relationship to:
Store data that is short-lived and could be easily deleted by simply deleting the table.
You can't enter a value in the foreign key column of the related table if that value
doesn't exist in the primary key of the related table. However, you can enter a null in
the foreign key column. For example, you can't indicate that a job is assigned to an
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employee who isn’t included in the employee table, but you can indicate that an
employee has no assigned job by entering a null in the job_id column of the employee
table.
You can't delete a row from a primary key table if rows matching it exist in a related
table. For example, you can't delete a row from the jobs table if there are employees
assigned to the job represented by that row in the employee table.
You can't change a primary key value in the primary key table if that row has related
rows. For example, you can't delete an employee from the employee table if that
employee is assigned to a job in the jobs table.
You can set referential integrity when all of the following conditions are met:
The matching column from the primary table is a primary key.
The related columns have the same data type and size.
Both tables belong to the same database.
Tip If you want to see labels for relationship lines, use the Show Relationship Labels
command.
values, click .
Repeat step 2 until you have the set of records you want.
2. Click in the column to the right of where you want to insert a new column, and then
on the Insert menu, click Column.
3. Double-click the new column's name and then type a name for the column If you want
to customize a field's definition further — for example, to change its data type, or
define a validation rule, use table Design view.
3. In the Unhide Columns dialog box, select the names of the columns that you want to
show.
2. CREATING A QUERY
You can create a query using different ways like
Using the design view
Using the wizard.
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3. CREATING A FORM
You can create a form by
Using the Auto form
Using a wizard
Creating a form in design view.
3. In the New Form dialog box, click one of the following wizards:
o AutoForm: Columnar Each field appears on a separate line with a label to its
left.
o AutoForm: Tabular The fields in each record appear on one line, with the
labels displayed once at the top of the form.
5. Click OK.
3. In the New Form dialog box, click the wizard that you want to use. A description of the
wizard appears in the left side of the dialog box.
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4. Click the name of the table or other record source that includes the data you want to
base your form on.
Note You don't need to do this step if you click the Form Wizard option — you can
specify the record source for the form in the wizard.
5. Click OK.
6. If you clicked Form Wizard, Chart Wizard, or PivotTable Wizard in step 3, follow the
directions in the wizard dialog boxes.
4. Click the name of the table or other record source that includes the data you want to
base your form on. If the form won't contain data (for example, if you want to create a
form to use as a switchboard to open other forms or reports, or if you want to create a
custom dialog box), don't select anything from this list.
Note If you want to create a form that uses data from more than one table, base
your form on a query.
5. Click OK.
6. on the field list listbox drag the fields you want and drop them on the form.
7. arrange you fields in the best way you like then save your form and run it to display
the record you’ve entered or to enable you to enter the records on the table.
Add or remove a form header and footer or a page header and footer
Notes
Form headers and footers appear at the top and bottom of a form in Form view and at
the beginning and end of a printed form. Page headers and footers appear at the top
and bottom of each printed page — they don't appear in Form view.
If you remove a header and footer, Microsoft Access deletes the controls in the
header and footer.
You can only add a header and footer as a pair. If you don't want both a header and a
footer, you can size the one you don't want so that it has no height, or you can set its
Visible property to No. You can also set the Display When property of a form header
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and footer to specify when you want the header and footer to be displayed ? always,
in print only, or on the screen only.
3. In the New Form dialog box, double-click Form Wizard in the list.
4. In the first wizard dialog box, select a table or query from the list. For example, to
create a Categories form that displays products for each category in a sub form, select
the Categories table (the "one" side of the one-to-many relationship).
5. Double-click the fields you want to include from this table or query.
6. In the same wizard dialog box, select another table or query from the list. Using the
same example, select the Products table (the "many" side of the one-to-many
relationship in the Categories form example).
7. Double-click the fields you want to include from this table or query.
8. When you click Next, if you set up the relationships correctly before starting the
wizard, the wizard asks which table or query you want to view by. Using the same
example, to create the Categories form, click By Categories.
9. In the same wizard dialog box, select the Form with Sub form(s) option.
10. Follow the directions in the remaining wizard dialog boxes. When you click Finish,
Microsoft Access creates two forms, one for the main form and subform control, and
one for the sub form.
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4. Create a report
You can create a report by
Create a report by using Auto Report. With Auto Report, you select one record source
and either columnar or tabular layout; Auto Report uses all the fields from the record
source and applies the last auto format you used to the report.
Create a report with a wizard. The wizard asks you detailed questions about the
record sources, fields, layout, and format you want and creates a report based on your
answers.
Create a report in design view
3. In the New Report dialog box, click one of the following wizards:
o AutoReport: Columnar. Each field appears on a separate line with a label to its
left.
o AutoReport: Tabular. The fields in each record appear on one line, and the
labels print once at the top of each page.
4. Click the table or query that contains the data you want to base your report on.
5. Click OK.
3. In the New Report dialog box, click the wizard that you want to use. A description of
the wizard appears in the left side of the dialog box.
4. Click the table or query that contains the data you want to base your report on.
Note Microsoft Access uses this table or query as the default record source for the
report. However, you can change the record source in the wizard and select fields
from other tables and queries.
5. Click OK.
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6. If you clicked Report Wizard, Chart Wizard, or Label Wizard in step 3, follow the
directions in the wizard dialog boxes. If you click AutoReport: Tabular or AutoReport:
Columnar, Microsoft Access automatically creates your report.
If the resulting report doesn't look the way you want, you can change it in Design
view.
4. Click the name of the table or query that contains the data you want to base your
report on. (If you want an unbound report, don't select anything from this list.)
Tip If you want to create a report that uses data from more than one table, base your
report on a query.
5. Click OK.
6. On the field list box drag the fields that you want and drop them on the report design
view.
Add or remove a report header and footer or a page header and footer
Notes
You can add a header and footer only as a pair. If you don't want both a header and
footer, set the visible property to No for the section you don't want. Or remove all
controls from the section, and then size the section to zero height or set its Height
property to 0.
If you remove a header and footer, Microsoft Access also removes the controls in the
header and footer.
2. Click the control that contains the text you want to change.
3. On the Form/Report Formatting toolbar, click Bold to make the text bold, Italic to
make the text italic, or Underline to make the text underlined.
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