an Access Database:
A Primer for Resource Center Managers
by
Laura C. Larsson
Finding Information In Access
Table of Contents
IntroductionSimple Datamining
Filtering Records
Sorting Records
Queries
For More Information
Introduction
Now that you have put some information in your database, let's take a moment or two to think about making some sense of it. Also, let's be honest. You've spent a great deal of time thinking about organizing the data, making sure all the entity relationships worked, that there wasn't redundant information in any of your tables. Now, why not take a moment and just flip through the data and see if it speaks to you.In this section, we will discuss four methods of finding data
We will not spend much time on queries in this section.Simple Datamining
Datamining is the rummaging around through data to see what comes up. Generally speaking you should create your hypothesis and then test it against data. Datamining lets the data generate hypothesis. This method of making decisions horrifies biostatisticans and epidemiologists, but not, apparently, business persons.If you don't know what data you're looking for, it sometimes help just to flip through the tables and look at records. Use the Datasheet view which lists the records in rows. Another method of viewing data is in the Forms view. Keep your mouse on the Next record icon and click through and view one record at at time.
You could consider that this method of making meaning of your data as
datamining - although it is very simple compared to the real datamining
performed on the huge databases generated by a large grocery store, for
example.
Filtering Records
If you want to work with a set of records from your database, for example, only those journals published in CD-ROM format by Ovid, you can filter the records in your database to get this information.To filter selected records, we will use the technique called filter by selection. It is not as difficult sounding as the name would suggest. Select the entry on the form which you wish to use as the filter. Since we wished to find all CD-ROMs published by Ovid, we would open the form containing Publisher information, find the first record with Ovid in the Publisher field, and then click the Filter by Selection icon. All records where Ovid is the publisher are displayed.
Note: If you only have a few records entered, you may only see the one record containing "Ovid".
A more complex method of filtering is filter by form. Select the Filter by Form icon. Select a blank record and type in the filter criteria into the appropriate field to tell Access what you want. For example, you might type in "Reading" in the Publisher field to fill all publishers located in Reading (MA). Once you've typed "Reading" into the Publisher field, click on the Apply Filter icon. Tables can also be used to Filter by form.
So, what kind of criteria can you use for filtering? The table demonstrates
Field, Sample Expressions and What Gets Displayed.
| Field | Sample Expressions | What Gets Displayed |
| LastName | >="L"
<="D" |
All records beginning with L and from L to Z
All records beginning with D or any letter from A to D |
| City | "New York"
"New York" or "Reading" |
Only New York
Either New York or Reading |
| State | Not "WA" | All records in the database from all states except WA |
| Vendor | Like "O" | Records for vendors beginning with the letter O |
Sorting Records
Records can be sorted by Number, Name, or Date. In fact, Access can sort the records based on any field entered into the database. So, in our Serials database we could sort nearly any field in ascending (A-Z) order. We could sort journal names, publishers and suppliers into alphabetical order, sort by Zip Code, and organize serial issues by date of receipt.Sorting in Form View
To sort in Form view, click inside the field you want to use for sorting the records, then click the Sort Ascending button in the toolbar. Most of the time we will want to sort our information in A-Z format, but there will be occasions when we want to look at our data in descending order. If we want to see which of our journals is the least expensive, select the TransactionAmount from the Order/Renewal table and click on the Sort Descending icon. That will put the lest expensive journal on top followed by the next least expensive, and so on down to the most expensive.Sorting in Datasheet View
To sort in Datasheet View, click the field name at the top of the column you want to use for the sorting; then hit the Sort Ascending
or
Sort Descending icon from the toolbar.
Queries
Although filters and sorting allow us to look at the data, they don't allow us to combine information from multiple tables, and they can't extract just the information we want to see, they display entire records.For this reason we will spend some time on Queries
in the next section of this primer.
For More Information
See Filter by Form, Filter by Selection and Finding and Sorting Data from Microsoft Help.Next: Generating a Report
Back: Data Entry