Introduction to Database Concepts and Microsoft Access 2000 Health Science Center IT Center – Training 352-273-5051

Database Concepts and Access 2000 Introduction Database Microsoft Access Design and Creation Plan Tables Queries Forms Reports

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.

What is a Database? A structured collection of related data An address book, a telephone directory, a timetable, etc.

Database Structure Store DATA Sort Best Method? Retrieve

Why Use an Electronic Database? Speed Ease of Use Versatility

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?

Basic Database Concepts Name: Barry Harris College: Medicine Tel: 392-5555 File (Table) A set of related records Record Name: Barry Harris College: Medicine Tel: 392-5555 A collection of data about an individual item Field Name: Barry Harris A single item of data common to all records

An Example of a File (Table) Records Name GatorLink Phone College Graff rgraff 392-3900 Pharmacy Harris bharris 392-5555 Medicine Ipswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP Fields

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, the tables can “talk” to each other. We can link (relate) our tables to find: Which doctors are seeing a patient Which students are in which class Which item is selling the most on Friday’s

What is a Relational Database? A relational database allows the definition of data structures, storage and retrieval operations and integrity constraints. Integrity constraints provide a way of ensuring that changes made to the database by authorized users do not result in a loss of data consistency

Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Unique Field Names Here we see an Address 1 & 2. One of them should be for Campus Addresses, and one for Home Addresses, but because of the vague field names, some data has been entered incorrectly. Name GatorLink Address1 Address2 Graff rgraff PO Box 100012 Gainesville, FL 32610 123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601 Harris Bharris PO Box 100234 Gainesville, FL 32610 456 South 3rd Road Newberry, FL 32684 Ipswich zipswich 846 West 52nd Ave Gainesville, FL 32609 PO Box 100256 Gainesville, FL 32610

Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases No Calculated or Derived Fields 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. Name GatorLink Date Hired Length Employed Graff rgraff 05/15/2000 4 yrs, 2 mo Harris bharris 02/08/1986 18 yrs, 6 mo Ipswich zipswich 12/15/1999 4 yrs, 7 mo Access will let you create calculations in queries, forms and reports.

Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Data is broken down into Smallest Logical Parts 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. Name GatorLink Home Address Graff rgraff 123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601 Harris Bharris 456 South 3rd Road, Newberry, FL 32684 Ipswich zipswich 846 West 52nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases Unique Records If you don’t have unique records, your database can’t tell which record you may be referring to. Name GatorLink Phone College Graff rgraff 2-3900 Pharmacy 392-3900 COP Harris bharris 392-5555 Medicine Ipswich zipswich 846-5656 PHHP

Primary Keys Name GatorLink Phone College Graff rgraff 392-3900 Pharmacy Harris bharris 392-5555 Medicine Ipswich 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 Keys Name GL Phone College Graff rgraff 392-3900 Pharmacy Harris bharris 392-5555 Medicine Ipswich 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.

Questions To Ask Yourself What do I want? (Outputs) What have I got? (Inputs) What do I need to do to get there? (Process)

Database Example: Bird Study What do I want? I want to know what kind of birds come to my neighborhood. Which birdfeeders work best to attract them. What have I got? Volunteers have offered their yards and bird feeders. What do I need to do to get there? I need to have the data collected by the volunteers. I need to set up and enter the data in my database.

Table of Yards 2 1 Yards Yard Number Owner Address Phone Number 3 4

Table of Birdfeeders Bird Feeders Bird Feeder Number Material - Wood, Plastic, Metal Location in Yard - Sun, Partial/Full Shade

Relationship: One Yard - Many Birdfeeders There must be one field in both tables that is the same, so that the database knows how the tables connect. In this case, we need to know which yard each bird feeder is located. Bird Feeders Bird Feeder Number Material Location in Yard Yard Number 1 ∞ Each Yard can have many Birdfeeders, but each Birdfeeder can only be in one Yard. This is called a one to many (1 - ∞) Relationship. Yards Yard Number Owner Address Phone Number

Table of Birds Bird Data Data Number Date Time Bird Type # of this type

Relationship: One Birdfeeder – Many Birds Bird Data Data Number Date Time Bird Type Bird Feeder Number Again, there must be one field in both tables that is the same, so that the database knows how the tables connect. In this case one birdfeeder can be visited by many birds. 1 ∞ Bird Feeders Bird Feeder Number Material Location in Yard Yard Number Most relationships will be One to Many. We will talk about One to One and Many to Many relationships in the Access: Tables and Relationships workshop.

Database Options 1,000’s of records Freeware/Shareware 0$ - $200 100,000’s of records MS Access $239 - $479 1,000,000,000’s of records Oracle/SQL $105 - $40,000

Why Use Access? Familiar look and feel of Windows Easy to start building simple databases Can build sophisticated systems True relational database It’s already on your computer

Things to Do Contact your customer support Backup

Introducing Access Tools Tables Queries Employees Customers Reports Customer Company Name Address City Telephone Contact Name Forms

Let’s Get Started Planning Brainstorm

Starting Microsoft Access Click on “Microsoft Access” in the Start menu Or if you have set up a shortcut on your Desktop, click on the Access shortcut icon

Opening a Database To open a database when you start Access Choose the Open an existing file option on the opening dialog, as illustrated To open a database once you have already started Access - Choose Open from the File menu - OR press CTRL+O - OR click on the Open icon on the toolbar

The Access Database Window Icons down the left hand side provide access to all database objects Select the object by clicking the icon

Navigating Fields and Records To move through records and fields To move through records Tab Shift+Tab Enter Shift+Enter Home End Ctrl+Home Ctrl+End Page Up Page Down The Arrow Keys First Record Current Record Last Record Previous Record Next Record New Record

Introducing Tables Datasheet View Design View

Table Design View Fieldname Data Type Description Properties

Introducing Queries A means of asking questions of your database Can look across a number of Tables

Introducing Forms A friendlier view of the database Used for data input, menus, display and printing

Introducing Reports Output of information from your database in the form of a printed report Allows you to group and summarize information Can be previewed to the screen prior to printing

Let’s Create Our Database