How do I link two tables together?

[Guest]

I'm very new to Access and trying to create two simple linked tables. One is
the alumni of a school, the other is their parents. For alumni who still
live at home, I want to be able to enter their address once, then have the
info transfer to the parent table as well. The parent names are on both
tables. I've set them up with a "relationship" between areas, but if I
change the zip code, for instance, one table, the zip code on the other table
doesn't changed even though I've made a relationship between those two
fields. I need very basic intructions on how to do this!!!
Thanks!

 

[John Vinson]

I'm very new to Access and trying to create two simple linked tables. One is
the alumni of a school, the other is their parents. For alumni who still
live at home, I want to be able to enter their address once, then have the
info transfer to the parent table as well. The parent names are on both
tables. I've set them up with a "relationship" between areas, but if I
change the zip code, for instance, one table, the zip code on the other table
doesn't changed even though I've made a relationship between those two
fields. I need very basic intructions on how to do this!!!
Thanks!

You're making a very common beginner's mistake. That is NOT what
relationships are designed to do! A relationship between two tables
does not automagically store information redundantly in both tables;
in fact you should not HAVE data stored redundantly in the first
place. A Relationship *prevents* you from adding a Parent record
unless there is a corresponding Alum record; it doesn't cause anything
to be added to the table.

I would suggest a different design: alumni are people; parents are
people too; an alumnus might himself be a parent of another alumnus. A
better design might involve three tables:

People
PersonID Autonumber
FirstName
LastName
<other relevant bio data>
GraduatingClass Integer <null if the person isn't an alum>

Addresses
AddressID Autonumber
PersonID Long Integer <whose address is this?>
Address1
Address2
City
State
PostCode

Relationships
PersonID1 Long Integer (1st person in a relationship)
PersonID2 Long Integer (2nd person)
Relationship (e.g. Parent, Spouse)


John W. Vinson[MVP]