Access 2003 and Tables without Relationships

  • Thread starter Thread starter Office MDF
  • Start date Start date
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Office MDF

It's been a while since I built a database in Access. But I opened one I am
using at work and there are about 20 Tables in it yet there are absolutely no
relationships...nada...nothin. That seems odd to me??? Is that common? Did
the person who built the database know what they were doing???

Comments would be appreciated.
 
Relationships need to be manually added to the database: Access doesn't do
it for you.

Yes, it's fairly common for people not to bother adding relationships. That
doesn't mean it's a good idea not to add them...
 
Setting up relationships is NOT required. They can be enforced other ways -
through queries and VBA code on forms.

That said, it is usually wise to set up relationships so you can let the
database engine handle relational integrity. If you don't, then you (as the
designer) must implement procedures to handle the relational integrity and
you can't do anything to guarantee the integrity if there is any way the
users can enter data that does not use forms. Direct entry into a query or
into a table or via importing data would all be problems that you would have
no control over.

So, it would seem that relationships should be setup. HOWEVER, if this is a
split database and you are looking at the front-end relationships window,
the relationships may not be showing up since the designer set them up in
the back-end database (linked tables) and never defined the relationships in
the front-end. That is ok, since the front-end has NO control over the
relationships in the backend database and any relationships in the backend
will effectively operate on the tables and data in the backend.

--
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
..
 
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