1. Creating a Simple Database with Microsoft Access 2007
Health Science Center
IT Center – Training

2. Basic Database Concepts
Name: Barry Harris College: Medicine Tel:
Table
A set of related records
Record
Name: Barry Harris College: Medicine Tel:
A collection of data about an individual item
Field
Name: Barry Harris
A single item of data common to all records

3. An Example of a Table Fields Records Name GatorLink Phone College
Graff
rgraff
Pharmacy
Harris
bharris
Medicine
Ipswich
zipswich
PHHP

4. You can join fields together in queries, forms and reports.
Basic Design Rules
Data is broken down into Smallest Logical Parts
Putting all of the home address in one field may make for convenient data entry, but it makes it very difficult to work with the data. For example, what if I needed to sort by City or Zip Code? Pulling fields together is fairly simple, pulling them apart is very difficult.
PT ID #
Home Address
987
123 West Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601
654
456 South 3rd Road, Apt 12, Newberry, FL 32684
321
846 West Newberry Road, Gainesville, FL 32609
You can join fields together in queries, forms and reports.

5. Basic Design Rules Unique Field Names
You also want to be aware of the field names across tables. For example several tables may use the Field LastName. When you use those fields in other parts of the database things can become very confusing very quickly.
DOCTOR TABLE
First Name
Last Name
Sallye
Shapiro
Samuel
Smith
Sidney
Samueson
PATIENT TABLE
First Name
Last Name
Annie
Adams
April
Appleton
Arnold
Arlington
Bobbie
Brown
Butch
Bruce
When these two Last Name fields are pulled into the same Query/Form/Report they will appear with the table name in front of the field name: Patient Table.Last Name

6. Access will let you create calculations in queries, forms and reports.
Basic Design Rules
No Calculated or Derived Fields
Calculations - If we give an employee a raise, we will need to change both the Hourly Rate and the Standard Pay, and we need to make sure our calculations are correct.
Derivations - Since we have the Dept ID, there is no need to include the Dept Name, it can be pulled from the Dept Table. Listing it in both places leads to data entry errors.
Employee ID Num
Hourly Rate
Standard Hours
Standard Pay
Dept ID Num
Dept Name
123
$10.00 40
$390.00 12
Editing
789 20
$200.00
Edit
Access will let you create calculations in queries, forms and reports.

7. Basic Design Rules Unique Records
If you don’t have unique records, your database can’t tell which record you may be referring to.
LastName
GatorLink
Phone
College
Smith
rsmith
3-5051
Pharmacy
COP
Thomas
bthomas
Medicine
Van Winkle
sleepyguy
PHHP
LastName
EmergencyContact
Smith
Mary Anne Smith

8. Primary Keys
LastName
GatorLink
Phone
College
Smith
rsmith
Pharmacy
Thomas
bthomas
Medicine
Van Winkle
sleepyguy
PHHP
To ensure that each record is unique in each table, we can set one field to be a Primary Key field.
A Primary Key is a field that that will contain no duplicates and no blank values.
Looking at the table above, what would be the best Primary Key?

9. Primary Keys
LastName
GL ID
Phone
College
Smith
rsmith
Pharmacy
Thomas
Bthomas
Medicine
Van Winkle
sleepyguy
PHHP
While each column in this particular data set has unique data, the field that will work best for us is GL ID (GatorLink). Many employees will work for the same college, have the same last name and possibly even share telephone numbers, but each employee should have a unique GatorLink ID.
When there is not a unique field in your data set, you can use an AutoNumber. Access can create incremented or random AutoNumbers for your primary key.

10. Basic Design Rules Unique Records
We use the unique primary key as our link between our tables, this helps ensure we connect to the correct record. ID
LastName
GatorLink
Phone
College 1
Smith
rsmith
3-5051
Pharmacy 2
COP 3 4
Thomas
bthomas
Medicine 5
Van Winkle
sleepyguy
PHHP
Emp ID
EmergencyContact 2
Mary Anne Smith

11. Planning our Patient Table
What have I got?
Name
Address
Phone
Age
Medical Record #
Emergency Contact
Height
Weight
Date of Last Visit
DOB
Medications
SSN
Insurance
Allergies
Gender
Age at First Visit …

12. Planning our Patient Table
Does the data belong in this table?
Name
Address
Phone
Age
Medical Record #
Emergency Contact
Height
Weight
Date of Last Visit
DOB
Medications
SSN
Insurance
Allergies
Gender
Age at First Visit

13. Planning our Patient Table
Smallest Logical Parts
Name First/Last
Address/City/ST/Zip
Phone
Age
Medical Record #
Date of Last Visit
DOB
SSN
Gender
Age at First Visit

14. Planning our Patient Table
Unique Field Names
Pt First Name
Pt Last Name
Pt Address
Pt City
Pt ST State
Pt Zip
Pt Phone
Pt Age
Pt Medical Record #
Pt Date of Last Visit
Pt DOB Birth Date
Pt SSN Social Sec #
Pt Gender
Pt Age at First Visit

15. Planning our Patient Table
No Calculated or Derived Fields
Pt First Name
Pt Last Name
Pt Address
Pt City
Pt State
Pt Zip
Pt Phone
Pt Age
Pt Medical Record #
Pt Date of Last Visit
Pt Birth Date
Pt Social Sec #
Pt Gender
Pt Age at First Visit

16. Planning our Patient Table
Primary Key
Pt First Name
Pt Last Name
Pt Address
Pt City
Pt State
Pt Zip
Pt Phone
Pt Medical Record #
Pt Birth Date
Pt Social Sec #
Pt Gender
(AutoNumber)

17. Planning our Patient Table
Final Plan
Pt Med Rec #
Pt First Name
Pt Last Name
Pt Gender
Pt Birth Date
Pt Phone

18. Let’s Build our Database!