I think I need a query....not quite for sure

[Katalia369]

I have literally hundreds of recipes inherited from my great-grandmother that
I am trying to put in a database so I don't always have to lug out the next
to historic books and risk damaging them(she was 98 when she passed away). I
made one table with no errors and a form both of which seem to be working
great. I am entering the recipes as I go. The trick is now that I have
roughly 280 and odd recipes entered and more to go I was hoping to make a
search window to make it easier to hunt down the one I want. I have 20
ingredient fields labeled "Ingredient #1" - "Ingredient #20" and a required
entry on field one because every recipe must have at least one ingredient.
What I want to do is be able to enter an ingredient (example: Pork) and have
the database search out a list of all the recipes that have pork in them and
display the recipe name (which is unique and the key field) and the one
sentence description I have tagged on each one. Maybe even add the ability to
search by type as I have my recipes divided in a drop down menu to catagories
like "appetizers", "sauces", Main dish" and so on. How do I create this
window so that all I have to do is enter the search and not always have to
keep rebuilding the same query over and over. Something a little more
permenant that anyone can click and find so my kids and later grandkids can
use this too.

I tried reading the tutorials but they all deal with multiple tables and
relationships and extra stuff that mixed in with learning queries just
confuses me. I only have one table and no relationships, but 20 ingredient
fields to search through and a fairly large list of records.

Hope this isn't too hard or too long winded.

Thank You in advance for any replies

A. Hardwick

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:49:01 -0700, Katalia369

You don't need a query, you need a database design foundation. What
you created looks more like a spreadsheet than a relational database,
and it will be VERY painful to turn it into anything decent.
So here is option 1: export your data to Excel. Especially the newer
versions have great search and filter options.
Option 2 is not bad either: buy some recipe software. Most of them are
less than $100 and you can add new recipes to them. big advantage: you
already have a good db design plus search features, printing, etc,
etc.
Option 3 is the long road: read up on relational database design and
start over.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[kc-mass]

Way out of line here BUT if they are great recipies - I love to cook - send
me the db and
I will send back the functionality you ask for,

Regards

Kevin

 

[Gina Whipp]

Katalia369,

Look here for an example of how to set one up in Access
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010186351033.aspx and then
look here for how to search http://allenbrowne.com/ser-62.html

AND if you want to know how relational databases work...

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials


http://www.databasedev.co.uk/table-of-contents.html

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm