Can Access do this?

[Stacey]

Hi there,
I am new to Access and have been learning a lot, but I
am stuck on one aspect of the program. I am creating a
database to store student data for an elementary school.
For a lot of the fields I have combo boxes. An example of
this is one field records the student's begnning of the
year reading stage. The reading stages are exploring,
developing, experiencing. On the form the teacher selects
one of these for each student. I want to be able to total
up how many students are at the experiencing stage, how
many are at the developing stage, and how many are at the
exploring stage. This data is contained in one field
(through a combo box) So basically I want Access to count
how many of each choice (from the combo box)are in a
field. I feel like this should be simple, but I am having
great difficulty finding any information about it. Thanks
for any help you can provide.

 

[Marc]

For a lot of the fields I have combo boxes. An example of
this is one field records the student's begnning of the
year reading stage. The reading stages are exploring,
developing, experiencing. On the form the teacher selects
one of these for each student. I want to be able to total
up how many students are at the experiencing stage, how
many are at the developing stage, and how many are at the
exploring stage. This data is contained in one field
(through a combo box) So basically I want Access to count
how many of each choice (from the combo box)are in a
field. I feel like this should be simple, but I am having
great difficulty finding any information about it. Thanks
for any help you can provide.

Click on query on the left side of the box. Click New -> simple query
wizard.
Select the table name eg Students.
Select the field you want totalled, and any other fields you want details
for,
Click Next, Finish.
Click the triangle.
Click the sigma - funny e
A new line appears on the query. Change group by to count for any other
field chosen.
Click the exclamation and you should see the results.
If you want a better layout create a form or report and base it on this
query you have created.

HTH
Marc

 

[John Vinson]

Hi there,
I am new to Access and have been learning a lot, but I
am stuck on one aspect of the program. I am creating a
database to store student data for an elementary school.
For a lot of the fields I have combo boxes.

If you're using Combo Boxes in your Tables - the infamous Lookup
Wizard - read the critique at
http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm.
Most serious developers avoid these like the plague that they are; and
most developers also avoid ever exposing table datasheets to users.
Forms are MUCH more powerful and flexible, and it's very easy to
create a combo box on a Form, even without using a lookup field in
your table.

An example of
this is one field records the student's begnning of the
year reading stage. The reading stages are exploring,
developing, experiencing. On the form the teacher selects
one of these for each student. I want to be able to total
up how many students are at the experiencing stage, how
many are at the developing stage, and how many are at the
exploring stage. This data is contained in one field
(through a combo box) So basically I want Access to count
how many of each choice (from the combo box)are in a
field. I feel like this should be simple, but I am having
great difficulty finding any information about it. Thanks
for any help you can provide.

I guess the question is - what is actually stored in your Table? Is it
a Text field containing the text strings "Experiencing", "Developing"
etc.? or is it a numeric value concealed behind the text string in the
combo box?

What I would suggest is creating a Crosstab query with the classID as
the row header and the reading level as the column header. This will
give you a query datasheet resembling

Experiencing Developing Exploring
Mr. Jones 4 8 12
Ms. Ramirez 5 6 13
Ms. Phelps 3 7 11