Testing my tables

[Guest]

I have just finished setting up what I think are OK basic tables and
relationships.

How can I test them before working on forms? What should I be looking for?

Andrea

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I have just finished setting up what I think are OK basic tables and
relationships.

How can I test them before working on forms? What should I be
looking for?

Andrea

You should make sure they are normalized. Other common errors include
using the work data types. For example using a number field when you want
the number 0011 to be different from 011. Or using text fields when you
will want to add numbers. Also you don't want compound fields like Name=
James J. Smith when it should be three fields FstName = James MIName = J and
LSTName = Smith. (note the field Name called Name would not be a good idea
either)

 

[Jamie Collins]

What should I be looking for?

Data integrity. Try inserting extreme values: negative value for
age_in_years, zero length strings in (required) text columns, far
future/past dates, dates that are not in chronological order (e.g.
hire_date before birth_date), duplicate values in relationship/junction
tables, etc. Basically, you want to get to the point where your
integrity constraints prevent bad data from getting into the database
even when you try. At this point you can proceed to creating a front
end application.

Jamie.

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