normalized tables

[Guest]

How do I use a large table (20,000+ records across 127 fields) of text data
type? How do I convert the data with queries?
How for resources or some that would be willing to help me with "properly"
normalized tables?

 

[Douglas J Steele]

Once you've got your normalized tables designed, you can run a series of
queries that use the DISTINCT operator against subsets of your current table
to populate the various new tables.

For example, if you've got Customer Number, Customer Name, Customer Address
and Customer Phone Number in every row, you'd use a query like:

INSERT INTO Customer (CustomerId, CustomerNm, CustomerAddr, CustomerPhone)
SELECT DISTINCT [Customer Number], [Customer Name], [Customer Address],
[Customer Phone Number]
FROM MyBigTable

 

[Joseph Meehan]

How do I use a large table (20,000+ records across 127 fields) of
text data type? How do I convert the data with queries?
How for resources or some that would be willing to help me with
"properly" normalized tables?

I suggest starting by making a copy of your database and run the
normalize wizard and see what it does. You may only need to do some
tweaking.

 

[Guest]

There's a tool in Access for doing this although the results can be less than
perfect.

1. Make a complete backup of the database and put it away for safe keeping.

2. At the Database Window go to Tools, Analyze, Table.

3. Read all about it and select Next frequently.

4. At around the third screen select your table.

5. At the next window let the Wizard decide.

6. See what Access comes up with.

 

[Guest]

I've tried the wizard...it's a complete mess. Would it be appropriate to
hire someone? I really need some help with design.

 

[Guest]

Sometimes a relational database can look like a mess. ;-) I was afraid that
the tool would just jumble things up. Hence the backup suggestion.

If you do decide to hire someone, first do a complete assessment of what you
want out of the data and what any future input would look like. The more you
know what you want, the more likely you will get it.