My first Access database

1
My first Access database

• A phone book

2
Relational Database

• Things we will do to our database
• Design the database
• Create the database
• Populate the database (insert data into it)
• Query the database
• Other things?
• Modify a databases design
• Modify a databases data

3
Designing the database

• We must first consider these questions
• What data do I want to store?
• How is it related?
• What will I use the data for in the future?

4
What data do I want to store?

• If we are working with a phone book we may want
  to store data such as

Phonebook Entries
Name
Address
Phone Number
5
How is it related?

• For every phonebook entry there is some name,
  address, and phone number

Phonebook Entries
Name
Address
Phone Number
6
How will I use the data in the future?

• I may want to
• Find the phone number of an individual when I
  only know their name
• Find the phone number of an individual at a
  particular address
• Find the name of an individual who owns a
  particular phone number
• Print a list of names and phone numbers of people
  who have a particular zip code
• Etc.

7
Other considerations

• Will multiple people share same phone number,
  address, or name?
• Will I have new needs for this database in the
  future?
• How can I plan ahead to accommodate potential
  changes?

8
Creating the database

• Decide which information to store as fields in
  the same table
• Every record must have a unique ID
• Decide a type for each field in a table
• Decide any relationship between tables

9
Which fields to store in the same table?

• Database designers are typically urged to keep
  information separate. This allows for more
  convenient storage, faster searches, and a more
  flexible database
• We are going to ignore that for now and store our
  data in one table called PhoneEntries

10
What fields will we use?
Table PhoneEntries
What types will each field use?
Table PhoneEntries
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Num
Num
Num
Num
11
Populating the database

• In Datasheet view it is like editing a row of an
  Excel spreadsheet