Chapter 4: Designing Your
Database the Relational Way
In This Chapter
Designing the tables in which you’ll store your data
Streamlining your design to make it tr uly “r elational"
Linking your tables together with joins
Choosing the right data types for your fields
Compatibility between Access versions
R
elational database design. Yikes! Sounds like a serious programming
project. But what is it, exactly. Designing a database means figuring
out how the information is stored — that is, which information Access
stores in each table of the database, and how it all connects together. Unlike
working with a spreadsheet or word processor, you have to design a data-
base beforehand — you can’t just start typing information in. (Well, sure,
you can, but we don’t recommend it — the result is usually a mess.) How
easy it is later to enter and edit information and create useful queries,
forms, and reports depends on how well your database is designed. A good
database design can streamline your work in Access.
This chapter takes you through the process of designing the table(s) you
need in your database, including the relationships between them. Book II,
Chapter 1 contains the instructions for creating the tables in Access.
What Are Tables, Fields, and Keys.
In Access, you store your data in
tables
— lists of records that work like
the index cards that make up an address list. Each record contains informa-
tion in the same format, in
fields
— specified places for individual pieces
of information.
If you want to keep track of the customers of your store, you make a table of
customers, with one record per customer. Each record is made up of the
same set of fields, which could be the customer’s last name, first name,
street address, city, state or province, ZIP or postal code, country, and
phone number (as shown in Figure 4-1).
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