CPSC 203Introduction to Computers

Tutorial 03 & 29

By Jie (Jeff) Gao

12 & 13 October 2004 CPSC 203 Tutorials by Jie Gao 2

Database Concept

• A collection of information related to a particular subject or purpose

• Database structure:

– Database• Tables

– Fields

• Fields have data types– Should be explicitly defined, not like

Excel

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Records

• Information in databases are stored as records– A “row” in a table– Containing values for each field– Databases store records without

considering their orders– The unit of many operations

12 & 13 October 2004 CPSC 203 Tutorials by Jie Gao 4

DBMS

• Database Management System

• Microsoft Access is a DBMS in Office

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Access – Introduction

• A component in Office• You need to save an Access

database first (unlike other Office documents)

• Objects in an Access database– Tables– Forms– Queries– Reports– …

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ATTENTION – WebDisk and Access

• DO NOT open an Access database directly from WebDisk– Otherwise you will probably lose your

data– Once this happens, you have no way

to get data back. No kidding!

• ALWAYS copy Access databases from WebDisk to the Desktop or “My Documents”, then open it– Remember to copy the updated

database back to the WebDisk

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Access – Creating Tables

• Use the table design view to define tables

• Give names to each field, and define data types for them

• Field options– Required / Index / Size / …

• Primary Key– The unique identifier for a record

• Save and give a table name

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Access – Relationships

• Relationships help keep the data consistent

• Different types of relationships– One-to-One– One-to-Many– Many-to-Many

• Creating a relationship– Menu Tools Relationships