Hi

Sorry if this is a silly question.

I am still struggling to understand how to do databases using relationships. Have been trying to learn myself for a few years.

My question is - Is there are good books or websites showing tutorials or how to do databases for Access 2003. i.e. a book that starts from scratch and as you go through the book you build up a database.

Hope that makes sense

Hi

Don't know whether or not you've been given the list below before or not, but there's tons of great information in the links that should give you good starting point and an insight into Access

• Database planning tutorial Part I
• Database planning tutorial Part II
• argeedblu's FAQ on Design Strategies
• Noah's FAQ on Normalization
• Jerry's FAQ on Normalization
• GroverParkGeorge's PDF on Normalization
• A Discussion on Storing Calculated Values and Audit Trails
• Jerry's FAQ on Fully Qualified Naming
• Jerry's FAQ on Glossary
• Danny's FAQ on Reserved Words
• Autonumbers - What They Are / Are Not
• Primary Keys - Natural vs Surrogate
• Naming Conventions - Hungarian Notation
• Crystal's ACCESS BASICS
• MSKB 283878: Description of the database normalization basics
• The Evils of Lookup Fields in Tables
• Sharing/Splitting a Database

I have worked my many relational database management systems (RDBMS) over the years. The design of your database still follows the rules of data normalization. The design principles are the same no matter which one you use. You use these same principles with Access. You can learn a lot from many sources on database design that are not written just for Access. I have read some really good material on database design that was written for mySQL developers. I would recommend learning about data normalization.



That is a very very broad. It could be many things. Will you give use some specifics on what is confusing? This will help to point you in the right direction.

As HiTechCoach suggests, the principles of database design and management are greater and more important than the software tools you use. I recommend you learn firstly from sources that aren't wedded to any particular software. Don't rely exclusively on the how-to type of tutorials. Avoid books with the name of a software product in the title. If you learn only the quirks of one piece of software you'll probably miss some key fundamentals and learn some things that are just wrong as a general rule.


For starters you can safely ignore the bit of Access weirdness called "relationships". Properly speaking, a relationship is a conceptual modelling term meaning an association among things. The construct that Access / Jet calls a "relationship" however, is actually an awkward amalgam of user-interface features (specifying default join clauses to be used by the query interface) together with a non-intuitive way of defining referential constraints. If you don't use Jet (and you probably should not) then you won't need to worry about those "relationships". If you are serious about taking up database management then start with one of the industry standard DBMSs like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL - all of which are available as free downloads. Of course you can still use your Access skills - use Access as a development tool / front-end to any of those.

Some decent books you could take a look at are:

Database Systems: The Complete Book (Garcia-Molina, Ullman, Widom)
Practical Issues in Database Management (Pascal)
Information Modelling and Relational Databases (Terry Halpin)

Mallard4468,



Years ago, when I learned that my job would require working on databases, I bought "Access97 Step by Step" from Microsoft Press. It came with a 3.5" floppy disk with some example files to use as you read the book. The concept of the book was that you were working for a small bakery shop, and you started out making very simple tables and forms and queries, working your way up to more complex stuff like using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

I found it immensely useful, but you really need to DO the exercises, not just read them. As you perform the tasks, you'll inevitably make mistakes, and in correcting the mistakes you learn why things work the way they do.

Of course, that's just one guy's opinion. If I were you, I'd scan the local bookstore/library for resources. And remember, even if you may be working with Access 2010 on your computer, most of what appears in the older books will still apply, concept-wise. The syntax might be a little different, that's all.

Dennis