Microsoft Access
What is a Database?
A database is simply a collection of related information. For example, if you gathered together all your photographs, you would have a database of photographs. If you collected all your photographs that included your dog, you would have either a more targeted database or a subset of your larger database.
If your database is small (for example, your home insurance policies), you can probably manage the information manually. In such instances, you might use a traditional management method such as a card file or a simple list on a piece of paper. However, as the database becomes larger, your management task becomes more difficult. For example, it would be virtually impossible to manually manage the customer database of a large corporation. This is where your computer and a database management system (DBMS) come in handy. DBMS software (such as Access) lets you manage large amounts of information quickly and easily.
In Access, a database consists not just of information, but also the tables into which the information is organized. Access databases also contain related queries, forms, reports, and programming instructions. Because these terms deserve further definition, they are covered in the following sections.
What is a Table?
In Access, tables contain the actual information in your database. There can be more than one table in a database. The information in each table can relate to information in other tables in your database. For example, you might have one table that contains a record of all the door locks in your building. In the same database, another table might have a list of all the keys for those locks. Still another table might contain the names of all the people who have the keys. All three tables contain related information, so they belong to the same database. Figure 1-1 depicts the relationship between the tables and this database.
[pic]
Figure 1-1 How Access relates tables and databases.
Your first step in
A database is simply a collection of related information. For example, if you gathered together all your photographs, you would have a database of photographs. If you collected all your photographs that included your dog, you would have either a more targeted database or a subset of your larger database.
If your database is small (for example, your home insurance policies), you can probably manage the information manually. In such instances, you might use a traditional management method such as a card file or a simple list on a piece of paper. However, as the database becomes larger, your management task becomes more difficult. For example, it would be virtually impossible to manually manage the customer database of a large corporation. This is where your computer and a database management system (DBMS) come in handy. DBMS software (such as Access) lets you manage large amounts of information quickly and easily.
In Access, a database consists not just of information, but also the tables into which the information is organized. Access databases also contain related queries, forms, reports, and programming instructions. Because these terms deserve further definition, they are covered in the following sections.
What is a Table?
In Access, tables contain the actual information in your database. There can be more than one table in a database. The information in each table can relate to information in other tables in your database. For example, you might have one table that contains a record of all the door locks in your building. In the same database, another table might have a list of all the keys for those locks. Still another table might contain the names of all the people who have the keys. All three tables contain related information, so they belong to the same database. Figure 1-1 depicts the relationship between the tables and this database.
[pic]
Figure 1-1 How Access relates tables and databases.
Your first step in