Design order database without Order Details?

S

studlength

Hello all.
I've been learning from this group for a while but this is my first
post. I'm also fairly new to designing databases, so please take it
easy on me. I'm trying to create a database for my company to track
customers and take orders on. I've studied the Northwind db and think
I grasp the concepts used. However, our company is unique in that we
only sell 3 products (and always will). Given this fact, would it be
smart to simplify the whole process by eliminating the Order Details
table and subform? I would like to just put a field for each product
on the Orders form to enter the quantities ordered. In other words,
the Orders table and form would have fields for Quantity Product 1,
Quantity Product 2, and Quantity Product 3. Is this a good idea or am
I missing something?
Thanks for any and all help.
 
B

Bill Mosca, MS Access MVP

Flexing the fields instead of the rows is a very bad idea. No matter how
many products your company sells, adding just one more in the future would
create a maintenance nightmare. All queries, forms and reports dealing with
product orders would have to be redesigned.

Stick with a normalized setup and you will be able to expand the product
line with no maintenance, just one more record.

I suggest that before you start building a database you should familiarize
yourself with the rules of normalization. Your textbook should include a
chapter on it.
 
S

studlength

I understand that if the product line changed often, my idea would
complicate matters greatly. But, as I stated, the product line will
never expand. So, that being said, is there still no advantage to
doing what I am proposing? It just seems like a wasted step to have to
select a product from a combo box on a subform when there are only
three products.
 
L

Larry Linson

I understand that if the product line changed
often, my idea would complicate matters greatly.
But, as I stated, the product line will never expand.
So, that being said, is there still no advantage to
doing what I am proposing? It just seems like a
wasted step to have to select a product from a
combo box on a subform when there are only
three products.

One of the delightful things about Microsoft Access is that you have a great
deal of latitude in how you accomplish your purpose with it. What you
propose is to use it more like a spreadsheet (or "flatfile" database) than a
relational database. If you are comfortable that you will never have to deal
with changes, and are comfortable that you can do everything you want with
the structure you propose, then "go for it."

Most of us, and I know that applies to Bill, try to give you the best advice
we can, based on our experience, which may be to a more general situation
than you face. I'd give you the same advice, because I have observed so
many people in newsgroups and in person who have been "bitten" when the
"simple database" they envisioned turns out to be more complex in the future
and they have to re-do a lot of things that are not so easy to re-do because
of the way they were implemented.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
 

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