1. Advanced Database Concepts: Reports & Views
INFO/CSE 100, Spring 2006
Fluency in Information Technology
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2. Readings and References
Fluency with Information Technology
Chapter 16, Case Study in Database Design
References
MS Access Help files
keyword “form”
Section “Reports and Report Snapshots”
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3. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
Views as Tables
Recall that the result of a query is a table
We have been presenting the table to the user in simple tabular form
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4. But tables are not pretty …
Users need help understanding what they are looking at and what they can do with it …
… so we developed Forms for controlling the display of data for the user who is reviewing or updating specific records.
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5. Views as Forms
A form is primarily used to enter or display data in a database
Last lecture we developed Forms for better display to the user while updating the table.
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6. But forms are not very compact …
Users like to have reports densely packed with information and logically arranged …
So this lecture we will develop Reports for compact display of multiple records.
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7. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
Reports
A Report is another face for a table (or query)
The report lets the designer arrange the data, label it, provide some control over events, etc
the presentation
multiple presentations are possible depending on the specific needs of each user
Underlying data comes from a table or a query
the content
single source of data ensures consistency
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8. How does a report get built?
The New Report wizard can build a complete report for you.
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9. But this wizard is kind of naïve …
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10. You might want to use the Report Wizard instead since it gives you more control.

11. Better looking report, but you still probably want to tweak it …

12. But you probably want to tweak it …

14. Explore the Design capabilities
Properties of the various controls can be set
Controls and labels can be moved around
Images and patterns can be applied
Totals, averages, subtotals etc can be calculated
Information can be grouped by selected fields
Etc, etc – there is a lot of flexibility in how these reports get generated
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15. entity-relationship diagram for Library database
Price
Name
ISBN
Title ID
Phone ∞
WrittenBy ∞
Books
Authors ∞
PublisherOf 1
Publishers
entity-relationship diagram for Library database
Books, Publishers, Authors are tables
Price, ISBN, Title are attributes of the table Books
There is a relationship between Books and Publishers
1 Publisher can have many Books ID
Phone
Name

16. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
Create a new database
We are going to be using MS Access.
Its available on the Lab machines and in MS Office if you have that installed on your home computer already.
Step 1: create a new database , with a .mdb file extension
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17. Create a new table in the database
MS Access tries to be friendly and offer you some choices!
Select "Create table in Design View".
Do not use the Wizard!
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18. Creating a table in Design view
Aha! Now you've got to enter in the attributes {fields} of the table.
Attributes have a field name, data type, and a description.
In this example, three fields are being created: ISBN, Title, and Price.
ISBN field is specified as the key (see key icon). Remember that the key field must be unique!
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Entering Table Data
Once the table has been added you must view leave the Design View to enter data into the table.
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20. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
Build another table
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21. Add publisher ID to books
Field properties allow you to add more details about each attribute {field}, including things
like size, format (for dates), number of decimal places, required, etc…
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22. Create the link between the tables
From the Relationships view. We can create a link by dragging a line between
a field from one table to a field on another table.
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23. Hey presto, we have a database!
Price
Name
ISBN
Title ID
Phone ∞
WrittenBy ∞
Books
Authors ∞
PublisherOf 1
Publishers
Hey presto, we have a database! ID
Phone
Name

24. Two tables with a relationship
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25. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
Create a query
Create a query in Design View.
Step 1: select query from the object lists.
Step 2: select the tables you want to query from.
Step 3: select the fields you want to query from.
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26. The query produces a new (virtual) table
A query produces a new table, of which we see the results.
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27. Project (select particular columns)
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28. Select particular rows
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29. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
SQL behind the scenes
Books.ISBN == books table and ISBN field
Books.* all fields from the books table!!
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30. Recall: Structure of the database
A database contains one or more tables
Tables include entities with attributes
There are relationships defined between the entities in the various tables
Retrieve information from the tables using queries
We designed and partially implemented a simple library database
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31. Books Authors Publishers Price Name ISBN Title ID Phone ∞ WrittenBy ∞
PublisherOf 1
Publishers ID
Phone
Name

32. What is the relationship?
This relationship is 1-to-many:
One publisher is responsible for many books.
Each book has only one publisher.
Books ∞
PublisherOf
The two tables are joined using the publisher ID number.
The publisher ID is the primary key for each entry in the publishers table.
Therefore, each publisher must have a unique publisher ID.
The publisher ID is a foreign key for each entry in the books table and we have requested referential integrity
Therefore, the given publisher ID must exist in the publishers table. 1
Publishers
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33. Referential Integrity
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34. PubID must reference an actual publisher
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35. What is the relationship?
Price
Name
ISBN
Title ID
Phone ∞
WrittenBy ∞
Books
Authors
This relationship is many-to-many:
One book may have several authors.
One author may have written several books.
We need a unique identifier for each book.
We already selected the ISBN as the primary key and asked Access to make sure that there are no duplicates
We need a unique identifier for each author
We will define an author table with a unique ID for each author
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36. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
authors table
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37. Link one book with many authors?
We DO want:
to link each book to one or more authors
We DON'T want
to specify extra fields (author1, author2, author3,…)
this is wasteful and limits the max number of authors
to specify each book entry several times, naming a different author in each row
this duplicates all the other information about the book
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38. Add a cross-reference table!
Refine the design so that it includes another table that is a book-author cross reference
Each entity in the table is a single cross reference
Attribute: ISBN
Attribute: Author ID
No primary key
Now we can break the many-to-many relationship into two 1-to-many relationships that we already know how to implement
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39. Define new cross-reference entities
Price
Name
ISBN
Title ID
Phone 1 ∞ ∞ 1
Books
Book/Author
Authors
ISBN
AuthorID
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40. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
book-author table
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41. Define the new relationships
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42. Define a query that uses the relationship
Query By Example
actual SQL

43. Get the new view of the data
Notice that this view has redundant data
That's okay, because we are not storing it this way, just presenting it
The redundant items (Alex, Another Press) came from a single entry in a table – they are guaranteed to be identical
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44. Now we've implemented this entire schema.
Price
Name
ISBN
Title ID
Phone ∞
WrittenBy ∞
Books
Authors ∞
PublisherOf 1
Now we've implemented this entire schema.
Publishers ID
Phone
Name

45. View: All Books from “Another Press”

46. fit100-25-advdatabases © 2006 University of Washington
View: All Books by Alex
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47. View: All info about a given ISBN