Access Databases An Access database: A collection of different types of objects, such as tables, forms, and reports and queries.

A table: Is an organized collection of information. It consists of vertical columns and horizontal rows of information about a particular category of things. A record: A row of a table, consisting of a group of related fields. A field: The smallest unit of information about a record. The values of a field appear in a column of a table. Data types: It defines the type of data the field will contain, such as number, date or currency. Field properties: A set of characteristics that is associated with each field, such as field size. Primary key: A primary key is a field that uniquely identifies each record, such as student ID number field of a student table, or ISBN number field of a library table.

Primary Key

Fields

Client No AM53 AS62 GR56 GU21 MI26 SA56 SI82 TR91

Name Ashton-Mills Alton-Scripps Grant Cleaners Grand Union Supply Morland Int. Sawyer Inc. Simpson Ind. Trannell Co.

Address 216 Rivard 722 Fisher 737 Allard 247 Fuller 665 Whittier 31 Lafayette 752 Cadieux 74 Webster

City Grattan Empire Portage Grattan Frankfort Empire Fernwood East Cedar

State MA MA NH MA MA MA MA MI

Zip Code Tech No 58120 11 58216 12 59130 11 58120 12 56152 11 58216 17 57412 12 47222 11

Records

Data Type: Text Field Size: 4 characters

Table

Data Type: Text Field Size: 2 characters

Query: It is a question (filtering criteria) you ask of the data contained in your database. The response is given in the form of a table as a result of filtering based on your query criteria. Using queries, you can view data in different ways, analyze data, and even change existing data. Queries also can be used as the source of forms and reports. A query can be considered a way to combine more than one table, giving a new custom table. Create a query: Open a table or tables. When using more than one table, in order to establish a relationship, make sure each table has a field in common, such as Tech Number field in both Client Table and Technician table. Select fields you are interested. Create calculated fields from the existing fields, such as Labor Cost: Hourly Rate * Hours Spent. You can sort the resulting query table, or place criteria to filter out information.
Create a Query Open Tables

Fields selected from both tables

A calculated field. Field name is Total Labor

A relationship: It is established between tables usually through at least one common field. The common fields must be of the same data type and contain the same kind of information. When you open (add) multiple tables in a query, Access automatically joins tables based on the common fields if one of the common fields is a primary key. In the figure above, tech number field is the common field to establish the relationship, which is necessary to combine two tables as one table. Relationship types: There are three types of relationships: 1) One-to-many, 2) many-tomany, 3) one-to-one. Form: A database object used primarily for data entry and making changes to existing records. Report: Printed output generated from queries or tables.

Typical Structure of an Access Database

Create & Open tables

TABLE

TABLE

TABLE

Collect data by a query

QUERY

Create a form to display data

Create a report to print data

FORM

REPORT

Add, delete, or modify data on a computer screen

Preview the report on the screen, or print out a hard copy of the report