access project

PearlJamaholic

so i have this final project for access where i have to create this whole database thing. i did real well on the tests and everything but i can honestly say i have no idea what access is for. i know how to use this program but thats about it. i have until 6pm tomorrow to hand this thing in and i dont know where to start. im supposed to create tables and all that crap, which i can do. but i have no central topic to make it all connect. thing is worth 25% of my grade so i cant take a 0 on this.

so what is access used for really? and what can i base this project off of?

BinFrog

What kind of theme are you supposed to use? Access is easy once you understand the basics, but you need to know your destination before you begin coding. What is your teacher expecting? You can always make it PJ based like an album or song fact table with dimsensions such as musicians, dates, times played live, etc. What else do you know abut this?

markymark550

An easy and obvious choice would be to create the database as if it was for a store. At a minimum, you would need to create 3 tables: Customers, Items, and Orders. Of course, you can go more in depth if you wanted to add tables for store employees, stock in a warehouse, receiving merchendise shipments, etc.

From there, you can create queries and forms that a business would probably need. Order invoices, customer history, and a total sold form immediately come to mind.

PearlJamaholic

its a very open project, any theme we want. just needs to use lots of tables with lots of records, etc. im just not good with starting from scratch when the thing has to be so big. you know, how do i make the peices all fit? i think instead of stressing over this ill just hand in peice of crap project and be done with it.

markymark550

I can't really tell you what to base your project on since that's ultimately your decision, but it sounds like you teacher/professor wants an in-depth database with appropriate tables, relationships, and possibly forms/reports. The best way to get started is to think of things that would need a large database. From there, break down that thing into it's individual autonomous parts and create tables for those parts. After you've got the tables, define the relationships in the database and put in some dummy records. Finally, create your forms/reports and you should have a finished project.

Just break things down into simpler, manageable tasks, and you should be ok. I'll be back on later and if you need some more ideas/help, just send a pm.

BinFrog

ALBUM (fact table, have an entry for non-album songs like "No Album Given"):
AlbumID (auto increment, PKey)
AlbumName
AlbumYear

SONG (dimension):
SongID (auto increment, PKey)
SongName
SongLength
SongYear
AlbumID

MEMBER (dimension):
MemberID (auto increment, PKey)
MemberFirstName
MemberLastName
PrimaryInstrument
BirthDate
IsInBand (Y/N...i.e. N is a guest musician)

MEMBERS_ON_SONGS (cross-reference)
SongID (PKey)
MemberID (PKey)
InstrumentPlayed

Go on from there if you want to. Maybe a concert table for "First Show Played" and "Number of times played"?

PearlJamaholic

thanks for the help, but she wants 5 tables at least 20 records for each table. everytime i look at the assignment thing im like screw it, she can fail me. ill admit it im a quitter. "if somethings hard to do its not worth doing" homer simpson. but i might use this anyways its better than nothing. heck if i did who worte what id have something to make a query from.

BinFrog

PearlJamaholic wrote:

thanks for the help, but she wants 5 tables at least 20 records for each table. everytime i look at the assignment thing im like screw it, she can fail me. ill admit it im a quitter. "if somethings hard to do its not worth doing" homer simpson. but i might use this anyways its better than nothing. heck if i did who worte what id have something to make a query from.

"5 tables with at least 20 records" is not reasonable. You cannot guarantee that all tables are above a certain size...it's stupid to approach a DB design like that. The tables will be what they will be.

You have a million ways you can approach this. How about a purchasing database? Line item, price, quantity, purchase date, invoice date, delivery date, item category dimension (office supplies, temp workers, etc), vendor, purchasing agent...you could easily work out a star schema with that data.

PearlJamaholic

BinFrog wrote:

"5 tables with at least 20 records" is not reasonable. You cannot guarantee that all tables are above a certain size...it's stupid to approach a DB design like that. The tables will be what they will be.

You have a million ways you can approach this. How about a purchasing database? Line item, price, quantity, purchase date, invoice date, delivery date, item category dimension (office supplies, temp workers, etc), vendor, purchasing agent...you could easily work out a star schema with that data.

im stealing your pj idea. i dont care if it doesnt meet all the requirements. its something i can sit through and do and not get bored with. and its pj so thats even better. maybe ill even have it done tonight.

sponger

surely your textbook provides for you a variety of example databases from which you can create your own.

BinFrog

PearlJamaholic wrote:

im stealing your pj idea. i dont care if it doesnt meet all the requirements. its something i can sit through and do and not get bored with. and its pj so thats even better. maybe ill even have it done tonight.

If you need more albums in your album table, put some bootlegs in there. That'll cross the 20 mark, and give you more options to xref with the song table.

(I'm a Sr. Data Analyst by the way...this is sort of what I do for a living - mostly in SQL Server though)

Snake

AHHHH Fuck Micrsoft Access!!!!

I hate using that thing in school :mad:

I feel for you my friend :(

81

i can send you a database. you can enter potential program info. if it contracts you can change it to contracted, if it gets killed off, you can kill it and enter a reason why.

you can also run reports to see how much contracted, how many programs your sales people are working on, and the cause of death on programs that were killed. it's pretty pimp. let me know where to send the blank database....you can enter some fake data.

rick1zoo2

pivot table

polaris_x

this should be an easy assignment ... especially when you can basically copy and paste any table you see on the internet ...

81

i'll never understand how microsoft came up with the great idea to name the IF function in excel IF and the IF function in Access IIF

:fp: