MS Access - Overview

Microsoft Access is a Database Management System (DBMS) from Microsoft that

combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface
and software development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of
applications, included in the professional and higher editions.
 Microsoft Access is just one part of Microsoft’s overall data management product
strategy.
 It stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine.
 Like relational databases, Microsoft Access also allows you to link related
information easily. For example, customer and order data. However, Access 2013
also complements other database products because it has several powerful
connectivity features.
 It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and
databases.
 As its name implies, Access can work directly with data from other sources,
including many popular PC database programs, with many SQL (Structured
Query Language) databases on the desktop, on servers, on minicomputers, or on
mainframes, and with data stored on Internet or intranet web servers.
 Access can also understand and use a wide variety of other data formats,
including many other database file structures.
 You can export data to and import data from word processing files, spreadsheets,
or database files directly.
 Access can work with most popular databases that support the Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) standard, including SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2.
 Software developers can use Microsoft Access to develop application software.
Microsoft Access stores information which is called a database. To use MS Access, you
will need to follow these four steps −
 Database Creation − Create your Microsoft Access database and specify what
kind of data you will be storing.
 Data Input − After your database is created, the data of every business day can
be entered into the Access database.
 Query − This is a fancy term to basically describe the process of retrieving
information from the database.
 Report (optional) − Information from the database is organized in a nice
presentation that can be printed in an Access Report.
Architecture
 Access calls anything that can have a name an object. Within an Access desktop
database, the main objects are tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, data
macros, and modules.
 If you have worked with other database systems on desktop computers, you
might have seen the term database used to refer to only those files in which you
store data.
  But, in Access, a desktop database (.accdb) also includes all the major objects
related to the stored data, including objects you define to automate the use of
your data.
MS Access - Objects
MS Access uses “objects" to help the user list and organize information, as well as
prepare specially designed reports. When you create a database, Access offers you
Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, Macros, and Modules. Databases in Access are
composed of many objects but the following are the major objects −

 Tables
 Queries
 Forms
 Reports
Together, these objects allow you to enter, store, analyze, and compile your data. Here
is a summary of the major objects in an Access database;

Table
Table is an object that is used to define and store data. When you create a new table,
Access asks you to define fields which is also known as column headings.
 Each field must have a unique name, and data type.
 Tables contain fields or columns that store different kinds of data, such as a
name or an address, and records or rows that collect all the information about a
particular instance of the subject, such as all the information about a customer or
employee etc.
 You can define a primary key, one or more fields that have a unique value for
each record, and one or more indexes on each table to help retrieve your data
more quickly.
Query
An object that provides a custom view of data from one or more tables. Queries are a
way of searching for and compiling data from one or more tables.
 Running a query is like asking a detailed question of your database.
 When you build a query in Access, you are defining specific search conditions to
find exactly the data you want.
 In Access, you can use the graphical query by example facility or you can write
Structured Query Language (SQL) statements to create your queries.
 You can define queries to Select, Update, Insert, or Delete data.
 You can also define queries that create new tables from data in one or more
existing tables.
Form
Form is an object in a desktop database designed primarily for data input or display or
for control of application execution. You use forms to customize the presentation of data
that your application extracts from queries or tables.
 Forms are used for entering, modifying, and viewing records.
 The reason forms are used so often is that they are an easy way to guide people
toward entering data correctly.
 When you enter information into a form in Access, the data goes exactly where
the database designer wants it to go in one or more related tables.
Report
Report is an object in desktop databases designed for formatting, calculating, printing,
and summarizing selected data.
 You can view a report on your screen before you print it.
 If forms are for input purposes, then reports are for output.
 Anything you plan to print deserves a report, whether it is a list of names and
addresses, a financial summary for a period, or a set of mailing labels.
 Reports are useful because they allow you to present components of your
database in an easy-to-read format.
 You can even customize a report's appearance to make it visually appealing.
 Access offers you the ability to create a report from any table or query.
Other MS Access Objects
Let us now take a look at other MS Access objects.
Macro
This object is a structured definition of one or more actions that you want Access to
perform in response to a defined event. An Access Macro is a script for doing some job.
For example, to create a button which opens a report, you could use a macro which will
fire OpenReport action.
 You can include simple conditions in macros to specify when one or more actions
in the macro should be performed or skipped.
 You can use macros to open and execute queries, to open tables, or to print or
view reports.
 You can also run other macros or Visual Basic procedures from within a macro.
 Data macros can be attached directly to table events such as inserting new
records, editing existing records, or deleting records.
 Data macros in web apps can also be stand-alone objects that can be called from
other data macros or macro objects.
Module
Module is an object in desktop databases containing custom procedures that you code
using Visual Basic. Modules provide a more discrete flow of actions and allow you to
trap errors.
 Everything that can be done in a macro can also be done in a module, but you
don't get the macro interface that prompts you what is needed for each action.
 Modules are far more powerful, and are essential if you plan to write code for a
multi-user environment, because macros cannot include error handling.
 Modules can be standalone objects containing functions that can be called from
anywhere in your application, or they can be directly associated with a form or a
report to respond to events on the associated form or report.
MS Access - Create Database
In this chapter, we will be covering the basic process of starting Access and creating a
database. This chapter will also explain how to create a desktop database by using a
template and how to build a database from scratch.
To create a database from a template, we first need to open MS Access and you will
see the following screen in which different Access database templates are displayed.

To view the all the possible databases, you can scroll down or you can also use the
search box.
Let us enter project in the search box and press Enter. You will see the database
templates related to project management.
Select the first template. You will see more information related to this template.

After selecting a template related to your requirements, enter a name in the File
name field and you can also specify another location for your file if you want.
Now, press the Create option. Access will download that database template and open a
new blank database as shown in the following screenshot.

Now, click the Navigation pane on the left side and you will see all the other objects that
come with this database.
Click the Projects Navigation and select the Object Type in the menu.

You will now see all the objects types — tables, queries, etc.
Create Blank Database
Sometimes database requirements can be so specific that using and modifying the
existing templates requires more work than just creating a database from scratch. In
such case, we make use of blank database.
Step 1 − Let us now start by opening MS Access.
Step 2 − Select Blank desktop database. Enter the name and click the Create button.

Step 3 − Access will create a new blank database and will open up the table which is
also completely blank.
 MS Access - Data Types
Every field in a table has properties and these properties define the field's
characteristics and behavior. The most important property for a field is its data type. A
field's data type determines what kind of data it can store. MS Access supports different
types of data, each with a specific purpose.

 The data type determines the kind of the values that users can store in any given
field.
 Each field can store data consisting of only a single data type.
Here are some of the most common data types you will find used in a typical Microsoft
Access database.

Type of Data Description Size

Text or Up to 255 characters.

combinations
of text and
numbers,
including
Short Text
numbers that
do not require
calculating
(e.g. phone
numbers).

Lengthy text Up to 63, 999 characters.

or
Long Text combinations
of text and
numbers.

Numeric data 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes (16 bytes if set to Replication ID).

used in
Number
mathematical
calculations.

Date and time 8 bytes

values for the
Date/Time
years 100
through 9999.

Currency Currency 8 bytes

values and
numeric data
used in
 mathematical
calculations
involving data
with one to
four decimal
places.

A unique 4 bytes (16 bytes if set to Replication ID).

sequential
(incremented
by 1) number
or random
number
AutoNumber assigned by
Microsoft
Access
whenever a
new record is
added to a
table.

Yes and No 1 bit.

values and
fields that
contain only
Yes/No one of two
values
(Yes/No,
True/False, or
On/Off).
 If you use previous versions of Access, you will notice a difference for two of
those data types.
 In Access 2013, we now have two data types — short text and long text. In
previous versions of Access these data types were called text and memo.
 The text field is referred to as short text and your memo field is now called long
text.
Here are some of the other more specialized data types, you can choose from in
Access.

Data Types Description Size

Attachment Files, such Up to about 2 GB.

as digital
photos.
Multiple files
 can be
attached per
record. This
data type is
not available
in earlier
versions of
Access.

OLE objects Up to about 2 GB.

can store
pictures,
audio, video,
OLE objects or other
BLOBs
(Binary
Large
Objects)

Text or Up to 8,192 (each part of a Hyperlink data type can

combinations contain up to 2048 characters).
of text and
numbers
Hyperlink stored as
text and
used as a
hyperlink
address.

Lookup The Lookup Dependent on the data type of the lookup field.
Wizard Wizard entry
in the Data
Type column
in the Design
view is not
actually a
data type.
When you
choose this
entry, a
wizard starts
to help you
 define either
a simple or
complex
lookup field.
A simple
lookup field
uses the
contents of
another table
or a value list
to validate
the contents
of a single
value per
row. A
complex
lookup field
allows you to
store
multiple
values of the
same data
type in each
row.

You can You can create an expression that uses data from one
create an or more fields. You can designate different result data
expression types from the expression.
that uses
data from
one or more
fields. You
Calculated
can
designate
different
result data
types from
the
expression.

These are all the different data types that you can choose from when creating fields in a
Microsoft Access table.
 MS Access - Create Tables
When you create a database, you store your data in tables. Because other database
objects depend so heavily on tables, you should always start your design of a database
by creating all of its tables and then creating any other object. Before you create tables,
carefully consider your requirements and determine all the tables that you need.
Let us try and create the first table that will store the basic contact information
concerning the employees as shown in the following table −

Field Name Data Type

EmployeelD AutoNumber

FirstName Short Text

LastName Short Text

Address1 Short Text

Address2 Short Text

City Short Text

State Short Text

Zip Short Text

Phone Short Text

Phone Type Short Text

Let us now have short text as the data type for all these fields and open a blank
database in Access.
This is where we left things off. We created the database and then Access automatically
opened up this table-one-datasheet view for a table.
Let us now go to the Field tab and you will see that it is also automatically created. The
ID which is an AutoNumber field acts as our unique identifier and is the primary key for
this table.
The ID field has already been created and we now want to rename it to suit our
conditions. This is an Employee table and this will be the unique identifier for our
employees.

Click on the Name & Caption option in the Ribbon and you will see the following dialog
box.

Change the name of this field to EmployeeID to make it more specific to this table.
Enter the other optional information if you want and click Ok.
We now have our employee ID field with the caption Employee ID. This is automatically
set to auto number so we don't really need to change the data type.
Let us now add some more fields by clicking on click to add.
Choose Short Text as the field. When you choose short text, Access will then highlight
that field name automatically and all you have to do is type the field name.

Type FirstName as the field name. Similarly, add all the required fields as shown in the
following screenshot.

Once all the fields are added, click the Save icon.
You will now see the Save As dialog box, where you can enter a table name for the
table.

Enter the name of your table in the Table Name field. Here the tbl prefix stands for
table. Let us click Ok and you will see your table in the navigation pane.

Table Design View

As we have already created one table using Datasheet View. We will now create
another table using the Table Design View. We will be creating the following fields in
this table. These tables will store some of the information for various book projects.

Field Name Data Type

Project ID AutoNumber
 ProjectName Short Text

ManagingEditor Short Text

Author Short Text

PStatus Short Text

Contracts Attachment

ProjectStart Date/Time

ProjectEnd Date/Time

Budget Currency

ProjectNotes Long Text

Let us now go to the Create tab.

In the tables group, click on Table and you can see this looks completely different from
the Datasheet View. In this view, you can see the field name and data type side by
side.
We now need to make ProjectID a primary key for this table, so let us
select ProjectID and click on Primary Key option in the ribbon.
You can now see a little key icon that will show up next to that field. This shows that the
field is part of the table’s primary key.
Let us save this table and give this table a name.

Click Ok and you can now see what this table looks like in the Datasheet View.

Let us click the datasheet view button on the top left corner of the ribbon.
If you ever want to make changes to this table or any specific field, you don't always
have to go back to the Design View to change it. You can also change it from the
Datasheet View. Let us update the PStatus field as shown in the following screenshot.

Click Ok and you will see the changes.