Question about Access DB design and related fields

[Flanman]

Access 2000 for Web Application
I am starting a new project and have a db setup question if anyone could
help me. With this project we are going to be tracking several Topic with
suptopics for each employee. I am trying to setup the most efficient way to
set these up in the DB and to also make it easiest for dynamic drop downs
when I use this db in a web application. Where I am having problems is that
several of the subcategories are duplicated, and I am not sure how to
associate 1 subcategory with several categories. Here is an outline of my db
so far.

TopicsTable
TopicID - Autonumber (Pk)
-----------------------------------------------------|
TopicText - Topic name
|
SubTopicsTable
SubtTopicID -Autonumber (PK)
SubTopicText - Sub topic name
TopicID - linked to TopicID in Topics Table for dynamic drop down---------|

So here is an example with data

TopicsTable
1,CustomerSetup
2,PrintingReports
3,Internet Apps

SubTopics Table
1, TroubleShooting,1
2, Setup/Maintenance,1
3, Instructions,2
4, Training,3

* Now the problem is I may need "setup/maintenance" for topics 2,3 as well.
I obviously don't want to list subtopics uses on several topics over and over
again in the subtopics DB.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Fred]

I noticed that nobody answered. I think that it's because by adding the "web
application" note, your changed your "how do I change a tire" question to
"how do I change my tire in a way that will make my car win the Indy 500?"
question.

Ignoring the web reference, what you describe is a "many-to-many"
relationship need while you have a "one to many" structure. To do "many to
many" you need a junction table, an "in-between" table with (at least) two
fields which are linked to the PK's of your two tables, and enter a record
for each instance of a link between the two.