HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Introduction to Database Concepts and Microsoft Access

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Database Concepts and Access u Introduction –Database –Microsoft Access u Design and Creation –Plan –Tables –Queries –Forms –Reports

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Things to Do u Contact your customer support u Backup

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida What is a Database? u A structured collection of related data u An filing cabinet, an address book, a telephone directory, a timetable, etc. u In Access, your Database is your collection of related tables

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Data vs. Information u Data – a collection of facts made up of text, numbers and dates: Murray /18/86 u 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.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Database Concepts u Table –A set of related records Name: Barry Harris College: Medicine Tel: Name: Barry Harris u Field u Record –A collection of data about an individual item –A single item of data common to all records

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida An Example of a Table Records Fields NameGatorLinkPhoneCollege Graffrgraff Pharmacy Harrisbharris Medicine Ipswichzipswich PHHP

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Design and Document Your Database u A designers best tools are a pencil and paper –It is important to plan what you are going to do u 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?

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Questions To Ask Yourself u What have I got? – (Inputs) u What do I want? – (Outputs) u What do I need to do to get there? – (Process) u How am I going to build it? – (Application/Program)

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida 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

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

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida What is a Relational Database? u 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: v Which doctors are seeing a patient v Which students are in which class v Which item is selling the most on Friday’s

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases u Data is broken down into Smallest Logical Parts NameGatorLinkHome Address Graffrgraff123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL HarrisBharris456 South 3rd Road, Newberry, FL Ipswichzipswich846 West 52nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 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.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases u Unique Field Names NameGatorLinkAddr1Addr2 GraffrgraffPO Box Gainesville, FL West Main Street, Gainesville, FL HarrisBharrisPO Box Gainesville, FL South 3rd Road Newberry, FL Ipswichzipswich846 West 52nd Ave Gainesville, FL PO Box Gainesville, FL 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)

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases u Unique Field Names PATIENT TABLE NameAddress Annie Adams6831 NW 4th Ave April AppletonPO Box 456 Arnold Arlington234 SE 45th Road Bobbie Brown234 Peter Pan Terrace Butch Bruce3243 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 NameDay Off Sallye ShapiroThursday Samuel SmithMonday Sidney SamuesonFriday 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

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases u No Calculated or Derived Fields NameGatorLinkDate HiredLength Employed Graffrgraff05/15/20004 yrs, 2 mo Harrisbharris02/08/ yrs, 6 mo Ipswichzipswich12/15/19994 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.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Basic Design Rules of Relational Databases u Unique Records NameGatorLinkPhoneCollege Graffrgraff2-3900Pharmacy Graffrgraff COP Graffrgraff Pharmacy Harrisbharris Medicine Ipswichzipswich PHHP If you don’t have unique records, your database can’t tell which record you may be referring to.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Primary Keys NameGatorLinkPhoneCollege Graffrgraff Pharmacy Harrisbharris Medicine Ipswichzipswich 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?

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Primary Keys NameGLPhoneCollege Graffrgraff Pharmacy Harrisbharris Medicine Ipswichzipswich 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.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Let’s Get Started Planning PatientsAppointments

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Opening a Database u 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 u To Create a database, click on the Create a new file… option in the bottom of the left frame. u You can also use the file menu to open existing databases or create new ones.

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida The Access Database Window u Icons down the left hand side provide access to all database objects –Select the object by clicking the icon

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Data View/Design View Datasheet View Design View

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Navigating Fields and Records u To move through records and fields u 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

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Introducing Tables u Database is a collection of TABLES u Tables store all the data

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Introducing Queries u A means of asking questions (querying) of your data u Can look across a number of Tables and other Queries u Can perform Calculations and Combine fields

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Introducing Forms u A friendlier view of the database u Used for data input, menus, display and printing u Can perform Calculations and Combine fields

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Introducing Reports u Output of information in a printed report u Allows you to group and summarize data u Can perform Calculations and Combine fields u Cannot Edit Data u Can Make Labels

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Working Together Employees Customers Tables Queries Customer Company Name Address City Telephone Contact Name Forms Reports

HSC IT Center Training University of Florida Let’s Create Our Database