Microsoft Access 2000

Relational Database Software

Note before we begin: Converting a database

 You CAN convert Access 95, 97 directly to 2000

 You CANNOT convert Access 2000 directly to 95 or 97

 Save it down > Tools/Database Utilities/Convert Database/to Prior Access Version

General Concepts
What is a Database and what is it used for?*

 A database is an organized collection of data related to a particular topic or purpose.

 The primary function of a database is to enable the user to organize and retrieve information
in a manner defined by the user.

Access
 Relational database software with a graphical user interface.

 Access integrates easily with Excel & Word.

 Easy to get started with pre-made tables, forms, queries & reports.

 Can use to create database applications by incorporating macros & modules (Visual Basic).

Flat-File vs. Relational

 A Flat-file database consists of a single database file or table which contains all the
information about a topic. It does not physically link or point to other files.

 A Relational database consists of multiple tables linked together by at least one common
field.

STUDENT INFORMATION TABLE

Name Address ClassID ClassName Instructor Time

Mary Wills 1010 1st St. CO150 Composition Matthews 3 MWF
Jim Johnson 234 Maple CO150 Composition Matthews 3 MWF

Mark Smith 111 W. 3rd CO150 Composition Matthews 3 MWF

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 Products Table

ProdID ProductName UnitPrice Quantity SupplierID

1234 Cajun Seasoning $1.00 2000 S450

SupplierID SupplierName Address Contact Phone

S450 New Orleans New Anne Rice 800-555-1111

Delights Orleans,
LA

The Database window

 Menus and toolbars

 Command Center – all operations start here

 Categories of objects on left

 Objects and creation icons on right

 Status bar

Access Database Objects

 Tables

 Forms

 Reports

 Queries

 Macros

 Modules

 Pages

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Tables
 Tables are the heart of Access.

 All data stored in tables. Fields (columns) and records (rows) intersect to form cells.

 Each table should contain information about one subject only.

 Each field contains a specific type of information such as text, number, currency, dates, etc.

 Two or more tables are linked together through fields they have in common. This is done by
defining relationships.

 Access creates relationships between different tables, about different but related subjects

 A table should contain data about 1 topic only, e.g., not students and faculty in one.

Queries
 Create a subset (dynaset) of data.

 Means for obtaining data from 1 or more related tables.

 Used to sort and/or select records according to your criteria.

 Used as the basis for reports.

 Action queries can be used to update, archive, delete, append records, etc.

Forms
 Used to view, edit, and enter data. You can also enter data directly into a table. They can be
customized for convenience. Best for on-screen viewing.

 Forms may be designed to simplify data entry and data editing.

 Can use controls to make data entry easier and more consistent such as drop-down lists,
radio buttons, etc.

Reports
 Sorted and summarized data. They can be designed to show only the data you want to
show. Best for printed materials.

 Used for printing data in an organized, professional looking manner.

 Can add subtotals, groupings, etc. to reports.

Macros
 Automatically carry out one or more tasks. Best for tasks that you perform often.

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Modules
 A set of procedures stored as a unit to perform an action. Written in Visual Basic.

Pages
 A data access page for viewing on the Internet, or an intranet.

Table Design vs. Table datasheet view

 Toggle in the upper right corner. Flips between the data itself (table) and the underlying
structure (design) of the data.

 Datasheet allows you to enter data, sort and filter data, hide and freeze columns, etc.

 Design allows you to create tables, add fields, and set and modify field properties.

Navigating the datasheet

 Navigation buttons in lower right hand corner – one record at a time, beginning, end, new
record, or type the number in.

 PgUp or PgDn for page at a time

 CTRL + Home for beginning, CTRL + End for end

 F5 moves you to record box, type record number, enter

Resizing rows and columns

 Similar to Excel

 Click and drag border

 D-click right border for autofit

Sorting
 Automatically sorted by primary key (unique identifier assigned to every table)

 Select sort column, hit ascending or descending sort button

 Can select multiple adjacent columns – will sort left to right

 Very simple – filters and queries for more flexibility

Selecting data in datasheet mode

 Part of cell - Click and drag

 Entire cell – Click left edge (+ mark)

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  Adjacent fields – Click left edge and drag

 Column – Click top of column (black arrow)

 Row – Click side of row (black arrow)

 Multiple columns – Click and drag black arrow

 Multiple rows – Click and drag black arrow

 All – CTRL + A or upper left box

Rearranging, hiding, freezing

 To move a column, select, then drag

 To hide a column, select it, Format/Hide

 For confidential information

 Format/Unhide to restore

 To freeze a column, select it, Format/Freeze

 Will go to left side

 To keep it in view as you scroll

 Format/Unfreeze to restore

Printing datasheets
 Hide and/or size columns for best view

 Change formats, fill colors

 File/Page setup for orientation and columns

 Landscape is often best orientation

 Preview before printing

Manipulating data

Adding records
 ►* for new record

 Always add to bottom – Access will resort when table is closed

 No need to save – when you leave record, Access will save

 Records/Data entry for data entry mode

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  Current record only – less distracting

 To remove – Records/Remove Filter

Editing records
 Click inside field (pencil will appear on left)

 Saves when you leave row or close table

 Can only “Undo” last record, so BE CAREFUL

 Within same record – hit escape to Undo

Deleting data
 Within a single field, select and hit Del

 Select records or multiple records from left, hit Del

 It will warn you once – no Undo, no exiting without saving changes

 Large groups of deletes – use delete query (Voter records purge)

Copying, moving data

 Edit/Copy, Edit/Cut, Edit/Paste

 CTRL + C, CTRL + X, CTRL + V

 Use toolbar buttons

 You must select the same number of fields to paste into that you copied from

 CTRL + ; - current date (doesn’t always work)

 CTRL + ‘ - copies data immediately above

Finding data
 Edit/Find

 Choice of column or table

 Choice of all or part of text

 Shift + F4 for future searches

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Filtering Records
Filtering Data
 By Selection

 Simplest; cannot sort at the same time

 Can also filter “excluding” selection

 By Form

 Can use ‘and’ ‘or’ statements; cannot sort at the same time

 Advanced Filter

 Use a filtering grid to enter expressions and sort criteria; most like query grid; can
sort simultaneously, offers most flexibility.

Filter by selection
 Select data you wish to look for

 Hit Filter by selection button

 All records that match will appear

 Multi-filter, by adding criteria

 Remove filter button when finished

Filter by form
 Best for simple multi-criteria

 Data entry form will appear

 Type in criteria, hit filter by form button

 Remove filter button when finished

Advanced Filter/Sort
 Records/Filter/Advancrd filter-Sort

 Most versatile of three

 Can sort and filter in one step

 Only kind that can be saved (as a query)

 File/Save as Query

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Advanced Filter/Sort Operators
 > greater than

 >= greater than or equal to

 < less than

 <= less than or equal to

 <> not equal to

 * wildcard

 Not - eliminates criteria from evaluation

 Between – finds criteria within a range

 Like – used with wildcard (*)

 Null – no value

Examples of Advanced Filter/Sort Operators

 =CA - value is equal to “CA”

 >=T - value begin with letter T, through Z

 Is not Null - there is some value

 <>CA, Not CA - All values but “CA”

 >=1/1/91 - Date is on or after 1/1/91

 Like G* - Values that start with G

 Not like *oak* - All words that don’t have “oak” in them

Advanced Filter/Sort criteria

 Records/Filter/Advanced Filter-Sort

 Drag or D-click or pulldown fields that are involved

 “Specify sort (ascending, descending, neither)

 Specify criteria using operators, text, numbers

 Hit Apply Filter

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Multiple criteria – “and” vs. “or”
 If you are looking for an “and” relationship, place both criteria on same line

 Vertical lines between boxes are “and” relationships

 If you are looking for an “or” relationship, place criteria on different lines

 Horizontal lines below “criteria” are “or” relationships

 “Or” statements can be typed together in same box (R-click for “zoom”)

Practice session
 “X” to clear grid

 A list of orders sent to Switzerland sorted by shipping date (18 records)

 A list of orders shipped outside the USA in 1996 (123 records)

 A list of orders with freight $50 or over to Germany or Brazil sorted by amount (90 records)

Database Design
Figuring out what you need
 Determine the purpose of the database. The subjects that need to be included and the facts
you need about each subject.

 Determine the tables you need. Divide information into separate subjects, and have a
different table for each subject.

 Determine the fields you need. Decide what information will be stored in each table. Break
the information down to its smallest logical part

 Determine which field will be the unique identifier (key field). If there isn’t one (i.e. – SS#),
Access will supply one. Names are not unique, and addresses and phone numbers can
change.

 Determine the relationships. Decide how the tables relate to each other. Add fields and/or
tables to help clarify these relationships.

Sample database design

 You have a list of workshops, people who came, people who presented, how much they
spent

 You want expenses by person, by workshop, by category, various sub-totals

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  You want lists of attendees by workshop, by location, by interests

 You want to create mailing lists for future workshops, based on interests and/or location

4 interrelated tables
 Table of workshops

 Table of attendees

 Table of presenters

 Table of presenter expenses

Workshop index
 W# - key field

 Name of workshop (subject/city)

 Facility

 Address 1

 Address 2

 City

 State

 Zip

 Date of workshop

 General Subject of workshop

Attendee listings
 A# - key field

 W# - (pulldown menu of subject/city)

 Prefix

 FName

 LName

 Phone number

 Address 1

 Address 2

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  City

 State

 Zip

Presenter listings
 P# - key field

 Prefix

 FName

 LName

 Phone number

 Address 1

 Address 2

 City

 State

 Zip

 Yes/no field for each workshop subject

Presenter expenses
 E# - key field

 W# (pulldown menu of subject/city)

 P# (pulldown menu of presenters)

 Date

 Travel expenses

 Food expenses

 Lodging expenses

 Materials expenses

 Misc. expenses

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Creating the tables
 Files/New/Database/Create to start from scratch

 Table wizard will leads you through decisions

 Design view toggles with datasheet view

Setting the primary key

 This is step 1

 Default ordering by this field

 Access won’t allow duplicates

 Helps define and create relationships between tables

 Usually best to have Access assign one (SS#, pre-existing employee # are exceptions)

 Hit the key icon

 Set data type as “Autonumber”

Field properties – upper grid

 Field Name – no spaces – or other applications can’t read it

 Data type – number ONLY if you perform math functions (Zip Code, phone numbers best as
text) – default is text

 Lookup wizard to set up a pull down box (pre-existing or new list)

 Description – will show in status bar – let others know what the field is for, how to enter
data, etc.

Field properties – lower grid

 F6 toggles between upper and lower

 Each field created in upper grid has a set of properties defined in lower grid

Field size
 Maximum number of characters an entry could be

 50 is default for text field

 250 is maximum for a text field

 64,000 is the maximum for memo field

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Format
 Displays numbers and text in a certain format, usually numeric – dates, currency.

 Different formats displayed for different data types (text has none listed)

 Some text formatting: < is all lowercase, > is all uppercase, @ will display “no data” when
nothing is entered

Input mask
 Inserts characters that aren’t saved in data, but help the imputer format data – phone
numbers, Social Security numbers, dates

 Hit the “…“ button to see options

Caption
 Specifies a label other than the field name

 Spaces can be used here, as opposed to the field name

 Default is field name

Default value
 Automatically fills in a specific value – current date is most common

 =Date() gives current date

 CO for home state

 Value can be changed after the fact

Validation rule
 Limits data to certain restrictions

 Use Expression Builder (…) or just type it in

 Use same standard operators from advanced filters

 >=50

 =25 or=50 or=75

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Validation text
 Message displayed when data breaks violation rules

 “Number must be greater than or equal to 50”

 “Number must be in increments of 25”

Required, Allow Zero Length

 These are similar

 “Required” requires that data be entered

 “Allow Zero Length” applies to text and memo only, allows a blank field to be accepted

Indexed
 Speeds searches on frequently sorted or search fields

 Slows data entry, requires more memory

 Only use when needed

 Key fields are always indexed

Relationships between tables

Types of relationships
 One to many – most common relationship

• Employee to Sales

• Each record in Sales matches only one record in Employee, but one
employee had many sales

 Many to many – strongly discouraged, unnecessary data redundancy

• Student to Classes

• Each record in one database matches multiple records in another

• Solved by creating and intermediary table with one-to-many relationships at

each end

• Pull the Key field from each table together in third table is a simple way

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  One to one – rare because it is two dimensional, can use Excel instead

• Business information to personal information

• Allows separation of databases, store personal information in a limited

access format (password)

Viewing relationships
 Tools/Relationships

 Drag around boxes, size boxes, lines will move

 Common fields are linked by lines

 Key fields are in bold

 Key fields are often, not always, the linking field

 Infinity symbol means many, 1 means 1

Forming and editing relationships

 R-click on line to edit or delete relationship

 Click and drag one field to same field in different table to form relationship

 One and many icons don’t show

 Click on line to edit properties

 “Enforce referential integrity” will turn them on

 “Cascade delete” will delete all records with references to that record – BE CAREFUL

 “Cascade update” is not as dangerous – will update all affected fields

Extra credit!
 Can you find the table created to link two many-to-many relationship tables together?

Queries

Two kinds of queries

 Select queries

 Allow you to select, view, and analyze data

 Action queries

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  Allow you to modify data

 4 kinds: Update, Delete, Append, Make table

Creating a query
 Select the database

 Queries/New

 Design view

 Select needed tables from the “show tables” box

 Close the box

 Tables must be connected, or all permutations will show, and your PC will crash

 Intermediary table can be used

Select the fields

 Drag or D-click or pull down needed fields to the field boxes

 To add all fields, click asterisk or D-click the Table header

Specify sort order

 Not required, but good to find an easy way to look through the data

 Ascending or descending in selected field

 More than one field selected, will sort left to right

 You can sort with a hidden column to circumvent this

Specify criteria
 Limits results of the query

 Use same expressions as advanced filter

 Multiple criteria use “and,” “or”

 Horizontal lines are “and”

 Vertical lines are “or”

-Expressions and calculated fields

 Bring up the tables you are working from (Queries/New/Design view)

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  In Field grid, put field names in brackets

 Join or calculate fields with expressions

 R-click, choose build to build with buttons

Expression and calculation examples

 [FirstName]+” “+[Last name]

 [City]+”, “+[State]+” “+[Zipcode]

 [UnitPrice]*[Quantity]

 [UnitPrice]*.25

 Expr1 is default column name, type in your own to left of colon

Parameter Queries
 For queries you run frequently, with different values

 Design query normally, type prompt text between brackets

 [Enter the last name], or [Enter the date]

 When someone brings up the query, it will prompt them for the variable

Save your query

 Use save button, or File/Save

 Use default name or name it yourself

 After save, it becomes part of the database, and will show when you hit the queries button
in the database window

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