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Re: Access

By: Zimbler0 in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Fri, 08 Apr 22 2:24 AM | 32 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 31119 of 60008
(This msg. is a reply to 31083 by Decomposed)
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I vaguely remember, De, that microsoft had (once upon a time) 'sample programs' one of which was similar to what you show in your posting. (But not nearly as many fields as you have.)

Or I may be remembering an example from one of a couple of Access books I had bought . . .

Ah . . . memories.

Tables - to hold ALL the data.

Queries - to allow one to 'copy out' a particularly designed subset of the data.

Forms - for inputting data into the tables. And sometimes to display pertinent items regarding a particular row from a table.

Reports - often based upon Queries for the purpose of displaying data. Particularly in financial activities, Reports can often do calculations such as adding up all the entries in a column of the report.

Normalization - each piece of data should be recorded in only one place.

Such things as queries can access multiple tables at the same time . . .

Another interesting trick . . . Is to have one king kong sized database which is nothing but the most important of data tables. And a second database with all the forms, queries, reports, etc. etc. which has the 'data table database' tables linked to it. And one can have multiple 'program databases' all linked to the same tables in the 'data database'.

And then I've forgotten a LOT of that stuff. . . But I do have books.

(Oh,and do not forget 'macro's' and Visual BASIC code modules.)

And, by the way, it is possible to write queries that will ask for a parameter to search for. And to write queries that will throw up a form with several fields to fill out to enter several 'items' to search and match. For example, if one was searching the database for anything educational by Asimov, you could request 'genre' and 'Originator1' - get the two criteria, and run the query.

VBA will allow one to do some truly remarkable things . . . But I never felt the need to write an actual SQL query.

Zim.




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The above is a reply to the following message:
Access
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Thu, 07 Apr 22 4:04 PM 		Msg. 31083 of 60008

I've wanted to do some things in Microsoft Access for a long time but didn't knuckle down and start learning it until a couple of weeks ago. My goal was to create a media management database flexible enough to track my books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, Collectible Newspapers, vinyl records, X-box games ... pretty much anything along those lines that could move around or be lent out.

Books are the main interest. I have thousands... I'd guess seven thousand but I really don't know. Nor do I know what they are, where they are, how many are duplicates. I don't know which ones I've read, what I particularly liked, which ones won awards, etc. When I've found interesting books (pretty near all science fiction is interesting to me), I've often bought them only to find that I already had them, maybe even in hardback or in better condition.

The database, the easily generated queries and the reports I can produce off of it and distribute (say to my wife's smart phone for use when we're on the road), should go a long way toward solving this.

The image below shows the main lookup/entry screen of my little database. It has combo boxes to simplify the entry of authors, media types, genres, categories, valid locations and a few other things. It has validation to minimize entry mistakes and to ensure, where appropriate, that only valid options are entered. The result probably looks simpler than it is. The truth is that writing a media manager - even in first draft, which is how I'd describe this - was more difficult than I expected. I couldn't have done it without the 'For Dummies' book I found - or something like it that holds the beginner's hand and walks him through the process of creating a database.

I'll probably rewrite the program several times as I learn more. I haven't yet cracked the spines of the VBA and SQL books I also bought. Both add enormously to what can be done with Access.

Thank you very much, micro.

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