Hello,

I'm back again, with a little more knowledge this time.... I've picked up "Grover Park George On Access" and "Access 2003 Bible". Can't say that I've been reading them both cover to cover, but I am trying to do that with George's book.

Again, thanks to FKegley and ScottGem for their earlier help!

A recap: I am a former mainframe COBOL Programmer/Analyst that is now wading into the Access pool, almost 4 years after my last programming assignment. I have never used Access in any capacity.

My manager has asked me to write an Access database that will read an Excel spreadsheet, format the data, and then he wants to be able to add some values to some new fields; the Excel spreadsheet has a "Comments" field, and he wants me to add "2nd Comments" and "3rd Comments" fields to the Access layout so that he can enter data into those fields at a later time. I 'm pretty sure he has a couple other new fields that he wants added in Access as well, although he has not specified those fields yet. He also will want to do some "currently undefined" report generation.

The Excel spreadsheet has 14 non-repeating fields per record.

I am assuming (he is gone for the rest of the week) that:

- he will not be reloading the database from scratch every time
- he will want the ability to delete a record once the issues with that record are resolved
- he will want to import the Excel spreadsheet periodically, adding new records that were not there on the previous read

1. I have been reading about normalization in George's book. Is there a need for normalization in this project? Each record written in Access will be essentially the same as the Excel record, with some additional formatting and a few new fields.

2. Since I have some rathy sketchy requirements right now, can I assume that Access will allow me to put together part of this database now, get that part to work, and then go back and add some more code? Even though I don't have all of the requirements, I would like to show him at least that the database has been created and that the Excel data has been imported successfully.

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Doug B (getting ready to fire up Access for the first time)

Doug, you will be kicking yourself in the shins big time if you don't normalize from the getgo. Even if you can't see a need for it now, normalization is about getting ready for change. Assume that the database is going to change. You don't want to have to keep changing the structure of the tables to accommodate new fields. You don't want to do that because you have to shove everyone else out of the database and do the changes. You may then have to rearrange the data, depending on what changes you made to the structure of the tables. Data stored in Excel worksheets is typically not normalized, as those using Excel are generally not fluent with Access and have no notion of normalization.

Yes, you can put part of it together right now, just be aware that you want it to be easy to change. I would want to be able to show some progress, too. You will need to keep the boss focused on what he wants to get OUT of the database. Your job is to put IN the database that which will produce the OUTPUT.

Just to add to what Frank said, please consider not deleting any records. Instead, create a field to indicate whether an issue is open or closed/resolved. You never know when you might want to revisit an issue or keep track of issues that keep recurring.

Also, if your manager is anticipating the addition of more comments fields, you will have repeating fields.

Good luck.

Thank you both for your answers. You've certainly given me things to think about!

I'm going thru the test db creation listed in Grover Park George's book, hopefully things will make more sense afterwards. Fairly confused right now, but that's to be expected at this point...

-Doug