Databases

Goals

Students will learn basic familiarity with office-level database systems. Students will be able to:

• List 3 benefits to storing data in a relational database vs. text or spreadsheet.
• List 3 basic structures/features of a user-level database.
• Create a table, and populate it with data.

Why use databases ?

Databases are an efficient way to store large amounts of structured data. Modern databases are often referred to as "relational" databases.

The advantages of storing data in a database (as opposed to a spreadsheet, text file, or other format) are:
organization - relational databases encourage organization of data.
validation - relational databases can enforce rules on the data as it is entered.
manipulation - relational databases have advanced features for data manipulation.
exchange - relational databases have a standard format that enables transfer of data to other applications.

Explore a database application

Find/create example database application. Be sure to point out forms, reports, tables.

Note navigation buttons on form.

What is relational data

Relational data is data that is stored in tables, with defined relationships between the tables. A table is just like an spreadsheet page; it consists of rows and columns. Generally, each row contains information about one thing. Each column contains a different piece of information about a thing.

For example, a table might contain information on people. Each row would contain data about a single person. Each column would contain something about a person, such as name, age, gender, etc.

Data Types

The information stored in columns generally has a particular type. For instance, it might be a number, or characters, or a date. One way that databases help organize data is by constraining data to a particular type.

Databases generally support the following types of data; there may be others depending on the particular software used:
character
number
date
boolean - true/false, yes/no, etc.

Null

NULL is a special value, representing "no data". It is not the same as zero, or the empty string, or any other value.

Tables

How to create & modify tables - design view

How to enter data - datasheet view

Exercise

Create a new database, then create a table and enter the data represented by the following:

There are the students Alisha, Benjamin, Carol, Duma, and Edward. They are studying Accounting, Biology, Civics, Drawing, and Economics. Alisha took her exams and got 70 in Accounting and 75 in Civics. Benjamin got 65 in Biology and 60 in Economics. Carol got 58 in Drawing and 77 in Civics. Duma got 90 in Accounting, but was sick for his Economics exam and will take it later. Edward got 45 in Civics and 63 in Biology.

Hint: there are at least two different table structures that could be used to store this data.

Goals

Students will learn about forms. Students will be able to:

• Create a form from a table using the form wizard.

Forms

How to create & modify forms - design view

How to enter data - form view

Goals

Students will learn about data normalization and queries. Students will be able to:

• Explain informally the benefits of normalized data. ("What is normalized data ?")
• Construct a primary key index.
• Construct a multi-table schema with foreign key relationships.
• Construct single- and multi-table queries.

How to normalize data

How to create relationships

Queries

Goals

Students will learn about Reports and SQL. Students will be able to:

• Explain informally the benefits of normalized data. ("What is normalized data ?")
• Construct a primary key index.
• Construct a multi-table schema with foreign key relationships.
• Construct single- and multi-table queries.

Reports

SQL - Structured Query Language

Goals

Students will learn simple event-driven programming in database forms. Students will be able to:

• Create forms with event-driven programming.

Review of Forms

Programming

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