Databases Organizing Sorting Querying A Presentation by Karen Work Richardson

Introduction An organized collection of information on a given subject or topic Phone Book Card Catalog Cookbook

Introduction A database is made up of records A group of fields all related to the same topic Each record includes fields One category of information Fields can be different types Text, Number, Date, Formula

A Typical Database A phone book is a typical database Each person’s information is a record Within each record, there are several fields:  Name  Address  Phone Number Each field would be a text field.

Fields Divide fields into the smallest categories: Divide Name into First Name, Last Name Divide Address into Street, City, State, Zip If numbers in a field are to be used in a formula, they must be defined as numbers. Formula fields use mathematical operators

Example These are the fields for an address book. Most fields are text fields. Birthdate is a Date/Time field. Phone numbers are text fields since they won’t be used in a formula.

Database Views List view (also called datasheet view) Looks like a spreadsheet Allows you to see many records at once Form view May include graphics or borders Displays one record at a time Best way to browse a database

List View Form View Use arrows to browse through each record Database Views

Sorting You can do a multiple field sort: sorting using several fields Ascending Order = A to Z or 1 to 10 Descending Order = Z to A or 10 to 1

Sorted by Last Name in Ascending Order Sorted by Last Name in Descending Order Sorted by Address ID in Ascending Order Various Sorts

Sorted First by Last Name in Ascending Order Sorted Second by Political Party in Ascending Order Multiple Field Sort

Querying a Database A query is a saved search A query is saved with the database file A query will display those records containing text or numbers A query can use signs

Database Query that shows all the presidents who were Democrats. Querying a Database

Database Query that shows all the presidents who were Republicans. Querying a Database

Reports Used when you want to print information from the database in an organized, easily understandable format May contain all records and fields OR just selected records or fields Can be designed with different layouts Cannot change the contents of fields in a report

Reports Named when they are created Saved as part of the database file Can be viewed anytime the file is open Reports are updated as database is changed

Sample Report This report on the presidents summarizes the information in the database. The presidents are sorted in ascending order by last name.