I have to create a database for work and for my sins I have to use Access. We are running 2007 but I'm having some difficulty in creating foreign keys in my linking table.
I've searched their help guide and looked on the net but I can't seem to see how I physically create foreign keys.
My structure looks like this:
Customer
CustID (autonumber)
Cust Name
Cust contact
Cust email
cust version
no of users
other info
Modules
ModID (autonumber)
Module name
licensed module? (tick box)
MiscSoftware
MiscID (autonumber)
Software
Installed on live
i have a materialsUsed tbl that list all the materials used in a job and the quantity of each.
(ID Material Code Quantity Unit of Measure)
I also have 2 look-up tables - 1 for the material codes and 1 for the units of measure
I have another table, priceperunitofMeasure
id material Code (FK to material lookup tbl) Unit of Measure (FK to unit of measure tbl) Price
In my form Users will select material code from combo box - enter the quantity, and select a unit of measure from a combo box.
For example: they could enter the following :
Paint 2 gallons Paint 3 tubes Paint 1 pint
How do I lookup the price per unit of measure for each of these records in the price per unit of meassure table? The price per unit of measure table has 2 foreign keys.
I'm not new to access, and I understand normalization at pretty much all its levels, but right now I'm curious about a situation that I have just come across. The first time I've been in something like this, so I thought I would ask.
This is the setup.
I have employees. They are apart of a shift and a budget. Shifts and budgets are completely independent of each other.
The database needs to keep track of shifts and budgets over time. Therefore, 1 to many relationship to shift table and budget table.
But, the database also needs to keep track of attendance. And the user wants attendance tracked by Shift and Budget.
Shift and budget are completely independent of each other.
Currently, I have the relationships set up like this.
When a new attendance record needs to be added, both the key to the budget and shift are added to the attendance table. The key chosen is dependant onthe Employee chosen, and whether the budget and shift are the CURRENT budget and shift that the employee is apart of.
I thought of running a query showing budget and shift by date descending, so that the latest budget / shift would be displayed, and thus the most current (SUPPOSEDLY) But, if a user put in a different date, or screwed up on the date, then the incorrect shift and/or budget would be displayed.
Date stamping an entry was an option, but there needed to also be a user entered date as well, to specify WHEN a user began working in that specific budget / shift. Therefore two date entries would be required. Duplicate entries in most cases.
I therefore decided to go with a true/false yes/no checkbox. Where the current budget or shift would be checked, and all non current ones would be unchecked (false).
Currently, this is how the systems works. And it works well. But it is dependent on some form code I created to set the yes/no checkbox to true/false depending on the situation.
I DON"T like doing this. Am I missing a way to do this "correctly" where by Access would do this "automagically" instead of via my trick.
The ONLY issue really, is that when a new attendance incident occurs, the user needs to put in the incident to the approbriate shift / budget. And if the current shift / budget could automatically be displayed without user intervention (IE user has to pick the shift / budget from drop down box after looking up info etc etc) since the current information SHOULD be known.
I've never done a table setup where two foreign keys are the many side of the relationship in a single table.
It is currently working fine, and seems to do well, but I wanted to make sure with others who might have had this experience. And also, any "advice" / "cautions" for this kind of situation so I don't step into it deep and have to fix it later.
Builder Subdivision Lot Number Lot Option Lot Materials Details
The [Lot Materials Details] table is populated by appending data from the [House Type Details] table tree as follows:
Builder House Type Elevation Options Per Elevation House Type Materials Details
The filtered Option Table in both branches determine which [House Type Materials Details] records get appended to the [Lot Materials Details] table.
The question is: Is there any advantage, other than simpler queries later on, to adding the primary key from the [House Type Materials Details] table to the [Lot Materials Details] table.
It’s redundant because the [Lot Options Table] contains the [Options Per Elevation] primary key.
hi i need to create a table, i've figured out to make LastName the primary key. But im not so sure about the foreign key, and whether it is necessary to put it into the table in order for all my tables to relate? Sorry if this doesn't make much sense. Also, to clarify.. 3NF primary keys in one table cannot be used in another table?? thanks
Wow, I've found some good stuff here already... Thanks.
PROBLEM: I have a table(we'll call it shipping) that has two columns FK'ed to another table (locations). My problem is I have no idea how to pull the information from the locations table into the shipping table.
DESCRIPTION: My shipping table has a source and a destination column. Now, I have a fixed location list that applies to both columns and I'd like to avoid having a source tbl and a destination tbl... I'm an Access Neophyte to say the least (for now at least) but I have managed to put together a querie that pulls out most of the information that I need (name, phone number, yadda, yadda, yadda) but I can't seem to correctly link the FK's for the sources to the locations table as well as the FK's for the destinations to the locations table. When I run my querie I get an error or my Source(destination) column will display the correct information but the Destination(source) column will display ALL of the locations in the location table. Here's what I mean:
Source destination detroit toledo detroit cleveland detroit San Diego detroit London detroit Paris detroit detroit Paris toledo Paris cleveland Paris San Diego Paris London Paris Paris Paris detroit
. . .
The first and second source was detroit and Paris but the Destinations list all of the locations I have in the table.
How can I link two FK's in one table to another table in a querie?
I am trying to model my database to create relationships between different tables in my database. During the process of doing so I ended up having one primary key in table A linked with to foreign keys in two different tables ( table B & table C) and both of those two table are junction tables to break out many to many between many other tables
Now for some reason!!! I feel that there is something wrong with my logic mapping and modeling of the relationships between tables due the fact of having one primary key linked to two foreign keys in two different tables :(
Is my intuition is right? should such case be considered as indicative of wrong modeling of relationships between tables in a single database And if so what is the disadvantages of that link (talking down the road) when the database if fully populated? :confused:
By the way I am new member and new to database, so please take it easy on me :o
I've got a table - "Products" - in my database, with a text field - "Info" - which contains info about products.
Within this field I would like to have footnotes. To do this, I think the best way to do it is by putting numbers inside the text at the location of where I want the footnote to refer to. These numbers will actually be foreign keys to a table called 'Footnotes'.
I can then program the forms and reports to show any numbers as superscripts or whatever.
(Of course, if the user will actually want to insert a number into the text field which is NOT a reference to a footnote, I will have to make a workaround e.g. by making access put a symbol in front of the number, so access will know the number is just part of the text (and I will program the form to not show the symbol in front of the number)).
Is it wrong to have foreign keys within a text field? I think if executed correctly, it should work perfectly.
I have what I think is a normalised database that uses foreign keys quite a bit.
For example if I had a 'contracts' table which refers to 'clients', then there would be a tblClients, where each client has a primary key. The tblContracts would then refer to the relevant client via that clients FK only which would be linked to the client's PK in tblClients via a one-to-many relationship.
If I need any user for any purpose to see contract related information that makes sense to a human being, I simply construct a query with the necessary relationships that will show client information alongside contract information by substituting tblContracts' client FK with required information from tblClients via the appropriate relationships.
I think that is reasonably basic stuff (hopefully correct practice!)
But what about when I come to import a block of new data that needs to go into tblContracts? I'm not going to be given a list of client keys (obviously) I'm going to given their real names.
MS Access has (in theory) all the information it needs (via the relationships) to substitute client IDs (keys) for their real names and thus slot these IDs into tblContracts with the new data as appropriate, but how do I make it do this? (I know it could kick out errors if there are any duplicate client names, but let's put that to one side for a moment).
Right now, I have 4 related tables. There's a table with companies, one with people involved with companies, a table linking the two by having foreign keys of the company number and people names, and a table that indicates directors and their alternates.
Since there's a one-to-many relationship for companies/people to company-peopleID (A person can run multiple companies, a company has multiple directors, it's easier this way), a person's name can appear multiple times, as can a company, within that table.
In a company, a director may or may not have 1 and only 1 alternate director to him/herself. So, I thought the easiest way was to put an autonumber in the Company-personID table and have a table (alternates) that had two fields, "alternate" and "director", both using that autonumber to link them. However, it appears as though I can't link the same primary key twice to two foreign keys of the same table.
I'm developing a simple sporting records db. I have a 'Competitor' table listing competitors as follows: CompetitorPK, Name, Division, Club. I have a 'Contest' table listing contests as follows: ContestPK, Competitor1_FK, Competitor2_FK, Winner_FK, Score etc. My question is have I modelled tables correctly i.e. CompetitorPK will appear in three columns of Contest table. How do I define this relationship? What alternative is there to what I have done.I intend to use forms to populate both tables (independantly obviously).
On trying to import an Excel 2007 file into Access 2007 I get the following:
1) Choose "External Data," Import, Exce 2) Select small file in MS Excel 2007 format. 3) Click on Import the source data into a new table ... 4) Choose OK
Immediately get "Microsoft Office Access has stopped working. Windows is checking for a solution to the problem..." This message never resolves, so I have to click 'Cancel'.
Then I get "Microsoft Office Access is trying to recover your information..." I have to click "Cancel" here as well and then kill MS Access in Task Manager.
Event Viewer gives following message, which is of no help: "ID: 2, Application Name: Microsoft Office Access, Application Version: 12.0.6211.1000, Microsoft Office Version: 12.0.6215.1000. This session lasted 710 seconds with 120 seconds of active time. This session ended with a crash."
Trying to import a small Excel 2003 file leads the same result. The same happens with a CSV file.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2007 as well. I am using Vista Ultimate.
I installed Office Enterprise 2007. Then I installed DEveloper Exrtensions, then Access Runtime 2007. All appear to have installed OK - they appear in Program and Features. Instructions on runtime packaging tell me that a Developer option should appear in the resulting drop-down when I click the Office button (top-left round thing) when I have a d/b open in Access. It's not there! I have un-installed and re-installed the extensions and the runtime - still nothing! Help! I do have Runtime 2002 (XP) on the same PC, is that relevant?
I noticed that when I made a few changes to one of my queries, the results in my data sheet view were in some sort of Asian looking language. See below. Why is it doing this? I've only been using English with this program and have not changed any of my settings so I'm very confused. Also the other fields are in English. This one field is the only one I'm having issues with.
I've built a system with around 20 tables in it. All of these use the standard ID field offered by default by Access as the primary key. A friend with a background in database design and development for large corporates using Oracle has reviewed the database (he is going to do some VBA programming for me) and suggested that we use more appropriate primary keys based on data attributes.
He has read "somewhere" that there are problems with the standard ID fields and that occasionally the fields are renumbered/reindexed and that this can cause problems. There are a fair number of queries and some complex forms which will need to be updated for these changes but it would be a shame to go through all this work if it isn't really.
Should we use the standard Access IDs and is it worth a chunk of effort to change from where we are now?
I used to import excel data into access successfully, many times but now I have to import excel data into an existing Access table with foreign key fields, which makes me problems.
Its just doesn't work...and Im sure the forien key fields are the prob cause, the other fields are going well ...
Is there a way to make access be able to store software versions and product keys automatically? Programs I am most interested in is like Microsoft Office suites and Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop and whatnot like that. I am not sure if this is even possible but I am trying to get my database fully functional with all the data and efficiency I can for at least 5 people so that I can try to sell access as a better tool than the service they are using now.
I have installed Microsoft Access 2003 and Microsoft Access 2003 Developer Extensions. I can create Access application by using the Package Wizard. But after I upgrade from Microsoft Access 2003 to Microsoft Access 2007. I can't use the Package Wizard.
Attached is a screenshot of the relationships in a database I built a couple of years ago. It's worked absolutely fine in Access 2003 and currently has over 18,000 customers with associated information in it.
However, when I open the database in Access 2007 the performance is awful. All the forms are very slow to respond when tabbing between form elements. I've experimented by reducing the number of form elements calling on related data on a given page and whilst this improves performance it reduces usability - something I don't want to compromise on especially since Access 2007 should be able to cope with this.
My next question is therefore whether I've got the most efficient underlying table design and I can't see any other way of doing it than my current method so I'd be grateful for any feedback or advice anyone has.
how to change default currency in Access 2013 to a "foreign currency" (i.e. to Indonesia Rupiahs) without changing control panel (Region/Language>currency) - now setup as USA ($US)?
Background Info: I developed our main department's Access 2003 split database which is on a server for 15+ Users. I've now been given Access 2007 for development -- Users still have 2003. There are also 2 other smaller databases that are not split (.mdb).
Problem: In the split database, I've saved the Application .mdb as 2003, relinked and made a new .mde. But the Users still cannot open the database. (I did this in a copy until I figure out the nuances with 2007.) The 2 other unsplit databases can be saved as 2003 version and Users can open OK.
I'm grateful for any suggestions on working with Access 2007. I've been trying to tackle the ribbon which is a whole other question.
