ITEC 1050, MS Access Practice Exercise

ITEC 1050, MS Access Practice Exercise This exercise is for you to practice using MS Access in the lab, and to provide you with help as to how to work with access. In many regards, it is similar to your“for-grade” project. The goal with this project is to learn how to create and use an MS Access database, not to rush through the exercise. Take your time and follow the instructions carefully– it will help you later while working on the actual project. PART I– THE FILE STRUCTURES Our database shall be to keep track of salespersons in a company. The SALESPERSON table shall be made up of the following fields: Field Salesperson ID Last Name First Name SSN CommRate

Data Type Auto number Text Text Text Number

Width

Office

Text

4 char.

State

Text

2 char.

CompanyCar

Yes/No

12 char. 10 char. 11 char Single, 3 decimals

Other Info Primary Key

Input mask as SSN Commission rate is entered as a percentage, thus 6.5% is entered as .065 Upper case (> in Format). Validate as SAV or BRU or ATL or GRE or CHA Upper case (> in Format); Default value is GA

There should be a table of customers who are Customers of the salespersons, the CUSTOMER table. It should be made up of the following fields: Field Customer ID Customer Name Customer City Employee # (this is the foreign key into the Customer Table)

Data Type Auto number Text Text Long Integer

Width 15 char. 12 char. 5 digits

Other Primary Key

Same as in the Salesperson Table. Common field between the 2 tables

PART II– STEP BY STEP, CREATING THE SALESPERSON TABLE 1. First open up MS Access. Click in the“Create a New Database” box’s use a“Blank Database” radio button. Then click OK. 2. You’ll be asked to save the new database. Place your diskette in the A drive. Click in the “Save in” box, and click on“3 ½ inch floppy A”. Down below, click in the“File name”box, and call this“Employee.mdb”. Remember– this database will have two tables. Click Create. 3. The blank database will be presented. The“Tables” tab will already be selected for you. Note that you can’t select anything but “New” on the right. Click on it.

Prof. Katz

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3/25/2010

ITEC 1050, MS Access Practice Exercise 4. A new dialog box is opened. Click on Design View, and then OK. You will do this for both tables. 5. Now you’ll start setting up your table. In the Field Name column, give the field its identifying name. You may use the suggested field names above. Then use the Tab key to tab over to the Data Type. When you do, a“drop-down” arrow will be displayed, as well as the default of “Text”. 6. Once you do this, the“General” tab under “Field Properties” below will be selected. It is here that you give the field it’s properties, such as field width, the > sign in Format for the Office and State fields, which makes them uppercase, and you create the Validation Rule and Validation Text, as described in the previous class session. 7. Go ahead and complete all the fields. When you’re done with each table, before you leave Design View, you will need to set up the Primary Key before you go to Datasheet View. (actually, you need to do this before formatting the input mask for the SSN as a Social Security Number)
To do this, place your cursor anywhere on the row containing the field to be designated as the Primary Key.
Now click on the little key icon on the standard tool bar. The Primary Key will be assigned. 8. Now click on the Datasheet view icon. You’ll be prompted to save the table. Call it Salesperson and click OK. After the save is complete, the Datasheet view will be displayed. 9. Now enter in all of your data for the Salesperson Table. Enter about 5 records. PART III– CREATE THE CUSTOMER TABLE 1. Now that you have created the Salesperson Table, and entered the data, you’re ready to created the Customer Table. 2. Following Steps 1 through 9 in PART II, create the Customer Table and enter the data, using the same steps for corresponding fields. 3. MAKE SURE THAT THE CUSTOMER RECORDS CONTAIN SALESPERSON ID#s WHICH EXIST IN THE SALESPERSON TABLE. 4. Enter about four records.

PART IV– CREATE THE RELATIONSHIP 1. Exit your table after you’ve entered all the data. 2. Click on the Tools drop-down menu from the menu bar. Click on the Relationships command. 3. The Show Table dialog box is displayed: • Click on each table and then click on Add • Click on the common field in the Salesperson table, and drag it to the same common field in the Customer table. • When you do, the Relationships dialog box will be displayed. Confirm the fields displayed– and their tables. Then click in the Enforce Referential Integrity check box. • Click on the Create button. The relationship has been created. 4. X out of“Relationships.” If asked to save it, click "Yes."

Prof. Katz

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3/25/2010

ITEC 1050, MS Access Practice Exercise PART V– CREATE THE REPORT USING THE REPORT WIZARD 1. Click the“Report” tab. Click New. 2. Click the Report Wizard. Then click on the drop-down arrow to choose the table to report from. Choose the Salesperson table. 3. Click on the fields you wish to report, and then the right arrow, to place the field in the “Selected Fields” box. To place ALL the fields in the box, click the double-arrow. 4. After you’ve done this, if you want to remove a field, click on the field in the“Selected Fields” box and then the left-pointing single or (to remove all) double-arrow buttons. 5. To rearrange the fields, you may have to remove them from the right, and replace them from the left in different sequences. Follow each step in the wizard process to complete your report. At the end of the process, you’ll be prompted to give the report a name. Do that, and click“Finish”. The report will be previewed for you. After previewing it, you may exit the report. If you were to print it, you would click on the Print icon.

PART VI - CREATING QUERIES (simple) 1. Click the“Queries” tab. Click New. 2. Click on Design View and click "OK" 3. From the "Show Table" dialog box, click on the Salesperson Table and click "Add". The table will be added to the view table area above the grid in your query design view. Now click on "Close". 4. In the Query grid, first column, click on the drop-down arrow on the Field row. Choose the Salesperson ID field. Now do the same for each column's field, selecting an Salesperson Table field to display. Don't select all the fields - the idea here is to select only the fields you want. 5. When you've selected your fields, save the query by clicking on the diskette icon and giving your query the name Salesperson Query. Now run the query by clicking on the red exclamation point icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen. Your data will be displayed. 6. Once you've done that, click on the Design View icon in the top left of the toolbar. Experiment by changing your query, and running it each time, in the following ways: • Click on the Sort row in a column other than the Salesperson ID, and select Ascending. Run the query and view the results. Now change back to Design View and select Descending for the same field and run it. View the results. Try this with several fields. • Click on the Show button (in Design View) for a field (should be checked - so "uncheck" it) and run the query. That field should not be present. Check the field back again. • If you haven't chosen the State field to be in your query, click on the next empty field's drop-down arrow and choose it. Now you're going to select, or filter out, records. Click in the Criteria row for the State field and key in =GA. (obviously, you will have to have some employees in GA, and you should have some in other states too) Tab out of the field. Now run the query. • Try the same selection with Sex being M and then F. You should have some records of each sex so that this filter works, displaying only the male records (and then, the female records) • You can do the same thing with the Company Car Yes / No field, using it to filter only those Salespersons who drive a company car.

Prof. Katz

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3/25/2010

ITEC 1050, MS Access Practice Exercise

PART VII– JOINED TABLE QUERY When you create this kind of query, using the same steps (1 through 3 above) you did before, this time add both tables from the Show Table box. The relationship you have previously created will also be in the query. Now you can follow the same steps above, selecting fields from both tables, without even displaying (or using) the Salesperson ID in the query as a field. The connection between the common Salesperson IDs will allow data such as the employee's name and his customer’s city to be displayed.

Prof. Katz

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3/25/2010