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Access Data Types

The document provides an overview of data types used in Microsoft Access for storing information in relational databases. It explains various data types such as Short Text, Long Text, Number, Currency, and others, detailing their descriptions, sizes, and appropriate usage. Additionally, it highlights changes in data types from previous versions of Access and introduces specialized data types like Attachment and OLE objects.

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9 views

Access Data Types

The document provides an overview of data types used in Microsoft Access for storing information in relational databases. It explains various data types such as Short Text, Long Text, Number, Currency, and others, detailing their descriptions, sizes, and appropriate usage. Additionally, it highlights changes in data types from previous versions of Access and introduces specialized data types like Attachment and OLE objects.

Uploaded by

Ace Lad Herbert
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ACC204: COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ACCOUNTING

LECTURE NOTES

Prepared by Joshua Addo (050 602 8495)

Department of Accounting, School of Business, University of Cape Coast

Access Data Types


Unlike flat-file databases, storing data in an RDBMS such as Microsoft Access requires some rules to be followed.
One of such rules is that each of the table columns/fields are required to store a specific type of data. Judging
which data type to assign which column/field largely requires common sense. For example, the values stored by
the first name column/field will contain textual values such as “Josh”. It logically follows that the appropriate
data type to assign to the first name column/field is TEXT. But hey, wait a minute. Access has two TEXT data
types, one for storing short sting of text and the other for storing long string of text. Columns/fields which store
relatively fewer textual values (such as the first name field) is appropriately assigned the SHORT TEXT data
type. In more specific terms, the SHORT TEXT data type stores up to 255 characters. Any textual descriptions
that goes above 255 characters should be assigned the LONG TEXT data type. For example if you have a
column/field which is to record comments whose characters may go above 255 characters, such a column/field
should be assigned the LONG TEXT data type.

NUMBER data type is assigned to columns/fields whose values are naturally involved in calculations. For
example, in the Access table below, the FeesPayable column/field contains values which are naturally used in
calculations, such as the sum of all fees paid by students, or 5% of fees deductible for SRC.

Feeid FeePayable FeePaid


1 GHS2,000 GHS1,500
2 GHS2,000 GHS2,000
3 GHS2,000 GHS1,000

We may naturally want to and can calculate the total fees paid by all students. We can also calculate fees owed
by students by subtracting FeesPaid from FeesPayable. Note that all fields/columns whose values are naturally
used in computations can be assigned the NUMBER data type.

CURRENCY data type largely has everything as the NUMBER data type, except that a column/field that is
assigned the CURRENCY data type has its values automatically formatted with the dollar currency symbol (we
will demonstrate this in Access soon). The following table details all the data types in Access, their descriptions,
and data limits.
1
Type of Data Description Size

Short Text Text or combinations of text and numbers, including numbers Up to 255 characters.
that are not used for computations (e.g. phone numbers).

Long Text Lengthy text or combinations of text and numbers. Up to 63, 999 characters.

Number Numeric data used in mathematical calculations. 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes (16 bytes


if set to Replication ID).

Date/Time Date and time values for the years 100 through 9999. 8 bytes

Currency Currency values and numeric data used in mathematical 8 bytes


calculations involving data with one to four decimal places.

AutoNumber A unique sequential (incremented by 1) number or random 4 bytes (16 bytes if set to
number assigned by Microsoft Access whenever a new record Replication ID).
is added to a table.

Yes/No Yes and No values and fields that contain only one of two values 1 bit.
(Yes/No, True/False, or On/Off).

 If you use previous versions of Access (such as Access 2010 or older), 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 as digital photos. Multiple files can be attached per Up to about 2 GB.
record. This data type is not available in earlier versions of
Access.

2
OLE objects OLE objects can store pictures, audio, video, or other BLOBs Up to about 2 GB.
(Binary Large Objects)

Hyperlink Text or combinations of text and numbers stored as text and Up to 8,192 (each part of a
used as a hyperlink address. Hyperlink data type can
contain up to 2048
characters).

Lookup The Lookup Wizard entry in the Data Type column in the Dependent on the data type
Wizard Design view is not actually a data type. When you choose this of the lookup field.
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.

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

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