Introduction to Database Concepts and Microsoft Access 2003

HSC IT Center Training

University of Florida

Introduction to Database Concepts and Microsoft Access 2003

Health Science CenterIT Center – [email protected]



Database Concepts and Access 2003 Introduction

– Database– Microsoft Access

Design and Creation– Plan– Tables– Queries– Forms– Reports



Things to Do

Contact your customer support

Backup

Backup

Backup



What is a Database? A structured collection of related data An filing cabinet, an address book, a

telephone directory, a timetable, etc. In Access, your Database is your collection

of related tables



Data vs. Information

Data – a collection of facts made up of text, numbers and dates:

Murray 35000 7/18/86

Information - the meaning given to data in the way it is interpreted:

Mr. Murray is a sales person whose annual salary is $35,000 and whose hire date is July 18, 1986.



Basic Database Concepts Table

– A set of related recordsName: Barry HarrisCollege: MedicineTel: 392-5555

Name: Barry HarrisCollege: MedicineTel: 392-5555

Name: Barry Harris

Field

Record– A collection of data

about an individual item

– A single item of data common to all records



An Example of a Table

Records

Fields

Name GatorLink Phone CollegeGraff rgraff 392-3900 PharmacyHarris bharris 392-5555 MedicineIpswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP



Design and Document Your Database

A designers best tools are a pencil and paper – It is important to plan what you are going to do

The sooner you touch the computer the sooner you’ll make a mistake– If you don’t plan you will often have to

start again

– Document what you are doing, will you remember what you did in three months time?



Questions To Ask Yourself What have I got?

– (Inputs)

What do I want? – (Outputs)

What do I need to do to get there?– (Process)

How am I going to build it?– (Application/Program)



Database Options Freeware/Shareware

- 1,000’s of records Microsoft Excel

- Limit of 65,536 Rows Microsoft Access

- 100,000’s of records Oracle/SQL

- 1,000,000,000’s of records & allows for Multiple users



Why Use Access?

Familiar look and feel of Windows

Easy to start building simple databases

Can build sophisticated systems

It’s already on your computer

True relational database



What is a Relational Database? A relational database is a collection of tables

from which data can be accessed in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables. – That is, once relationships are created, tables can

“talk” to each other. We can link (relate) the tables to find:

Which doctors are seeing a patient Which students are in which class Which item is selling the most on Friday’s



Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Data is broken down into Smallest Logical Parts

Name GatorLink Home AddressGraff rgraff 123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601Harris Bharris 456 South 3rd Road, Newberry, FL 32684Ipswich zipswich 846 West 52nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

Putting all of the home address in one field may make for convenient data entry, but it makes it very difficult to work with the data. For example, what if I needed to sort by City or Zip Code? Pulling fields together is fairly simple, pulling them apart is very difficult.

You can join fields together in queries, forms and reports.



Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Unique Field Names

Name GatorLink Addr1 Addr2Graff rgraff PO Box 100012

Gainesville, FL 32610123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601

Harris Bharris PO Box 100234Gainesville, FL 32610

456 South 3rd RoadNewberry, FL 32684

Ipswich zipswich 846 West 52nd Ave Gainesville, FL 32609

PO Box 100256Gainesville, FL 32610

Access won’t let you use the same field name twice in one table but it can become confusing to people doing data entry if you are not clear. Try to keep a consistent naming convention.

Field names can be up to 64 characters long. (see tables documentation for more details)



Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Unique Field Names

PATIENT TABLEName AddressAnnie Adams 6831 NW 4th Ave

April Appleton PO Box 456

Arnold Arlington 234 SE 45th Road

Bobbie Brown 234 Peter Pan Terrace

Butch Bruce 3243 SE 4th Terrace

You also want to be aware of the field names across tables. For example several tables may use the Field FirstName. When you use those fields in other parts of the database things can become very confusing very quickly. DOCTOR TABLE

Name Day OffSallye Shapiro Thursday

Samuel Smith Monday

Sidney Samueson Friday

When these two Name fields are pulled into the same Query/Form/Report they will appear with the table name in front of the field name: Patient Table.Name



Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases No Calculated or Derived Fields

Name GatorLink Date Hired Length EmployedGraff rgraff 05/15/2000 4 yrs, 2 moHarris bharris 02/08/1986 18 yrs, 6 moIpswich zipswich 12/15/1999 4 yrs, 7 mo

If we wanted to see how long an employee had been working with us, we can calculate their Length Employed by subtracting their hire date from today’s date. However, since today’s date is always changing, this data very quickly becomes stagnant.

Access will let you create calculations in queries, forms and reports.



Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Unique Records

Name GatorLink Phone CollegeGraff rgraff 2-3900 PharmacyGraff rgraff 392-3900 COPGraff rgraff 392-3900 PharmacyHarris bharris 392-5555 MedicineIpswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP

If you don’t have unique records, your database can’t tell which record you may be referring to.



Primary KeysName GatorLink Phone CollegeGraff rgraff 392-3900 PharmacyHarris bharris 392-5555 MedicineIpswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP

To ensure that each record is unique in each table, we can set one field to be a Primary Key field.

A Primary Key is a field that that will contain no duplicates and no blank values.

Looking at the table above, what would be the best Primary Key?



Primary KeysName GL Phone CollegeGraff rgraff 392-3900 PharmacyHarris bharris 392-5555 MedicineIpswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP

While each column in this particular data set has unique data, the field that will work best for us is GL (GatorLink). Many employees will work for the same college, have the same last name and possibly even share telephone numbers, but each employee should have a unique GatorLink ID.

When there is not a unique field in your data set, you can use an AutoNumber. Access can create incremented or random AutoNumbers for your primary key.



Let’s Get Started PlanningPatients Appointments



Opening a Database To open a database when you

start Access– From the bottom of the left panel,

choose the database you wish to open, or choose More… to browse for another database

To Create a database, click on the Create a new file… option in the bottom of the left frame.

You can also use the file menu to open existing databases or create new ones.



The Access Database Window Icons down the left hand side provide access to all

database objects– Select the object by clicking the icon



Data View/Design View

Datasheet View

Design View



Navigating Fields and Records To move through records and fields

To move through records

First Record

Previous Record

Last Record

New Record

Current Record

Next Record

Tab Shift+Tab Enter

Home/End Ctrl+Home Ctrl+End

Page Up Page Down The Arrow Keys



Introducing Tables Database is a collection of TABLES Tables store all the data



Introducing Queries A means of asking questions (querying) of your data Can look across a number of Tables and other Queries Can perform Calculations and Combine fields



Introducing Forms A friendlier view of the database Used for data input, menus, display and printing Can perform Calculations and Combine fields



Introducing Reports Output of information in a printed report Allows you to group and summarize data Can perform Calculations and Combine fields Cannot Edit Data Can Make Labels



Working Together

Employees

Customers

Tables Queries

Customer

Company NameAddress

City

Telephone

Contact Name

Forms

Reports



Let’s Create Our Database

Documents

Introduction to Database Concepts and Microsoft Access 2003