Download Access Project 3

Maintaining a Database
Access Project 3
What is Database Maintenance ?
 Maintaining a database means modifying the data to
keep it up-to-date. This includes:
 Adding records
 Changing data in records
 Deleting records
 In addition to record maintenance, database
restructuring is necessary periodically. This includes:
 Changing field characteristics (ie. type, size)
 Removing existing fields
 Creating indexes
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Updating Records (AC 117)
 You can use Datasheet view or Form view to add
records
 In both Datasheet view and Form view, records are
ordered by primary key
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Searching for a Record (AC 118)
 “Search” is used when making changes to records
 Use the Find or Replace tabs
 Select the field in which your search criteria must
match; values are restricted to that field
 Wildcards also can be used.
For example, Clicking the Name field, and entering
Fa* in the Find What text box will find all records
where the client name begins with Fa.
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Filtering Records (AC 121)
 Use Find to quickly locate a record – note that all
other records will still appear
 To have only the record or records that satisfy the
criterion appear  use a filter
 3 Types of Filters:
 Filter By Selection – simple filter
 Filter By Form – use for multiple criteria
 Advanced Filter/Sort – complex criteria
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Deleting Records (AC 125)
 When you delete records, in Access, they are
permanently deleted from the database
 It is important to back up a database before adding,
changing, or deleting records
 In some DBMS, deleting records is a two-stage
process. First, records are marked for removal and
then removed permanently in a separate step
ACCESS IS NOT A 2-STEP PROCESS
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Adding a Field and
Changing the Size of a Field (AC 127)
 You may want to add a new field to your table
 You can insert a blank row in the table for the field
 The size of a field can be increased or decreased
 If the field size is decreased, any existing data larger
than the new field width will be truncated
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Mass Changes (AC 135)
 Mass changes to records are made thru queries:
Update, Delete, Append, and Make-table queries
 Update query – makes same change to all records
 Delete query - deletes a group of records
 Once records are deleted using a delete query, the operation
cannot be undone
 To preview the records to be deleted, view the query in
Datasheet view before running it
 Append query - adds records to an existing table
 Make-table query - adds records to a new table
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Validation Rules (AC 139)
 Validation Rules are rules to be followed when entering data
 Validation text – the message that will appear if a user violates
the validation rule
 Required field – a field in which the user must enter data
 Range of values – entry must lie within a certain range of values
 Default value – a value that will display on the screen in a
particular field before the user begins adding a record
 Legal value – accepted values for a field, others are rejected
 Validation rules make it easier to enter data. When a data type is
declared as Number or Currency, Access automatically validates
the type of data that can be stored in the field (only numbers can
be entered in the field).
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Referential Integrity (AC 150)
 The property that ensures that the value in a foreign
key must match that of another table’s primary key
 In Access, referential integrity is defined via
relationships between tables using the Relationships
command
 A One-to-Many Relationship  means that one record
in the 1st table is related to many records in the 2nd
table (ie. one trainer associated with many clients)
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Referential Integrity (AC 150)
 If we were to delete out trainer 42’s data from the
database, the clients associated with 42 would now be
orphan records (not linked to any trainer)
 To avoid this problem:
1) avoid such a deletion
2) cascade the delete, allow the deletion but
automatically delete related records (ie. clients)
 If we were to update trainer 42’s number to 62, we
could:
1) avoid such an update
2) cacade the update, allow the update but
automatically make the change for related clients
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Creating and Using Indexes (AC 157)
 Indexes are used both for retrieving records quickly
and listing records in a different order.
 Indexes can optimize the performance of the database
 Access uses indexes automatically. In some DBMS
the user must indicate that an index is to be used.
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Creating and Using Indexes (AC 157)
 Create an index on a field if one or more of the
following conditions are present:
 The field is the primary key of the table (auto-index in Access)
 The field is the foreign key in a relationship you have created
 You frequently will need your data to be sorted on the field
 You frequently will need to locate a record based on a value in
this field
 Although indexes improve efficiency for sorting and
finding records, they can slow the editing, adding, and
deleting of data because they occupy disk space.
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Creating and Using Indexes (AC 157)
 Single-field index
 An index whose key is a single field
 You may allow duplicates in the index key (two records that
have the same value). For name, duplicates should be allowed
 Multiple-field indexes
 An index whose key is a combination of fields
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Special Database Operations (AC 163)
 Backup and Recovery
 To backup the database  File Back Up Database
 Compacting and Repairing a Database
 When you delete objects (tables, records, etc.) from a database,
the space previously occupied is unavailable for use
 You must compact the database to get this space back
 3 step process:
 Compact the original database to a different name
 If successful, delete original database
 Rename compacted database to original name
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Maintaining a Database
Access Project 3
Any Questions?