Hi RC,
You definately have a bad design (repeating groups of data--in this case
each group is one field). If you later decide that you want to track a
minimum of 4 actors, you will need to add a new field to the table and
you'll
need to modify any queries, forms & reports that include these fields. A
general rule of thumb is that adding new fields is expensive; adding new
records is cheap. A properly designed database will allow you to add any
number of actors for each movie, from zero to the total acting cast.
A table should represent a single subject. The fields in the table
describe
attributes of the subject. Here are some recommended links for you to read
on
database design:
http://www.datatexcg.com/Downloads/DatabaseDesignTips1997.pdf
http://www.eade.com/AccessSIG/downloads.htm
(See the last download titled "Understanding Normalization"
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=234208
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=289533
Tell you what--If you send me a private e-mail message, so that I have a
valid return address, I will send you two different sample movie databases
for your consideration. One of them was designed by Michael Hernandez, a
database design guru and a personal friend of mine, while we enjoyed
sipping
coffee at a Starbucks outlet. Mike's design includes a single table for
storing all names: actors, directors, etc. It also includes a roles table,
so
that one can easily assign one or more roles for each person for each
movie
that they are in.
If you send me a message within the next 30 minutes or so, I'll send you
the
databases right away. Otherwise, it will have to wait until I return home
from work.
Tom
___________________________________
:
No particular reason. The database is a "Movie" database. The DB holds
various movies, actors, genres, etc. The table that holds the bulk of the
data is named Movies. The Movies tables reads data from the Actors table.
Movies has three fields, Actor1, Actor2, Actor3 which all read via lookup
from the Actors table. I would like to keep them separate.
When I enter Actor information into the Movies table, I want it to Query
the
Actors table to see if it exists. If yes, do nothing, if no, add it to
the
table.
TIA
___________________________________
Hi RC,
It sounds like your current database design has similar data (people's
names) stored in more than one table. In general, this is not a good idea,
unless there is some characteristic or attribute that clearly groups the
people (for example, customers versus employees). Before suggesting a
method
that would appear to break good design principles, why are you wanting to
store names in more than one table?
Tom
______________________________________
:
Hi all, I have two tables that I'm working with. I'm entering data using
a
form. I want to be able to enter a name on form 1 that reads/writes to
table 1. I then want that value to query table 2 for the entry that I
just
wrote. If the value is not in table 2, I want the value added to the
table.
If the value exists, do nothing.
I am pretty familiar with VBA but not so much with Access. I have some of
the code already, I just don't know how to query table 2 and then update
the
table.
Any help would be great
TIA
RC-
