Access Table

[janzak]

I want to create a contact table in Access and place the customers and
vender in the same contact table and distinguish them by "contact
category". So far all the examples of a table I have seen create 2
separate tables for customers and venders. Is there any reason or
benefit to avoid putting my customer and venders in the same table?

Thank you

Jan

 

[Charles]

Usually you will store different data items for vendors thatn you would for
customers. For example a customer number may be a different format than a
vendor number. If you are saying that ALL of your data fields are exactly
the same for customers and vendors (which is unlikely) there is no reason.
Also if you have table for order to vendors or order from customers then you
would definately want to normalize your data.

What I would suggest is to create on table that holds all your data and
fields, then use the database splitter option in Access to automatically
normalize the table structures. It won't be perfect but it is a fairly
decent start at normalizing

CL

 

[Rick B]

I would put them in the same table if they can share the same fields. Do
your customer records and vendor records have the same data stored? In my
experience, they would not. Customers might include a discount field, a tax
rate field, etc. that your vendors might not have.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I want to create a contact table in Access and place the customers and
vender in the same contact table and distinguish them by "contact
category". So far all the examples of a table I have seen create 2
separate tables for customers and venders. Is there any reason or
benefit to avoid putting my customer and venders in the same table?

Thank you

Jan

In addition to what Charles and Rick have written, consider the future.
Maybe today is sounds like a good idea to have them mixed in one table, but
in the future??? We often see problems created because what appears to be
the simple easy way today turns into a problem in the future.

 

[Dean]

I want to create a contact table in Access and place the customers and
vender in the same contact table and distinguish them by "contact
category". So far all the examples of a table I have seen create 2
separate tables for customers and venders. Is there any reason or
benefit to avoid putting my customer and venders in the same table?

Thank you

Jan

I have read through several post and I don't think anyone answered your
question directly on point. If you want to distiguish between customer
and vendor, then create another field in your table. I would index
that field myself as well. You could use a text box such as "C" and
"V" or spell them out or use a check box field.

As reading through the other posts though and my 10+ yrs experience on
Access, I would strongly consider making them two tables.