MICROSOFT ACCESS

Introduction

Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a pseudo-relational

database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet
Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a
member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher
editions or sold separately. In mid-May 2010, the current version Microsoft Access 2010 was
released by Microsoft in Office 2010; Microsoft Office Access 2007 was the prior version.
Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine. It can also
import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.

Software developers and data architects can use Microsoft Access to develop application
software, and "power users" can use it to build simple applications. Like other Office
applications, Access is supported by Visual Basic for Applications. Visual objects used in
forms and reports expose their methods and properties in the VBA programming
environment, and VBA code modules may declare and call Windows operating-
system functions.

Microsoft Access Database File Extension

When you create (and save) a database in Microsoft Access, the database is saved with
an .mdb extension. This is the file extension you will use the most, when developing Access
databases. Once you've established your database, you also have the option of saving it as
an MDE file, which gives you some benefits over the MDB file. An MDE file uses
an .mde extension.

Downloading Microsoft Access

If you don't currently have Microsoft Access installed on your computer, you can download it
from the official MS Access website.

Access Versions
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As with most software products, new versions of Microsoft Access are occasionally released.
If the screenshots in the tutorial don't look exactly like the screens on your computer, don't
worry too much. Most of the basic functions remain consistent between versions of Access.

Microsoft Access: Creating a Database

Creating a database in Microsoft Access is relatively straightforward. This lesson

demonstrates how to create a database.

1. You may notice that, whenever you start Microsoft Access, you see the following
screen. In this case, you can simply select "Blank Database".

2. If you already have Access open, you can go to the "File" menu and click on "New
Database":

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3. Choose "Blank Database". (Skip this step if you already chose "Blank Database" at
step one). You also have the ability to choose from a template, but we'll just use a
blank database here:

4. Choose a location to save the database:

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New Database

Once you've completed the above tasks, you should see a blank database, like this:

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We know this database is blank because it doesn't have any tables. If it did, you would see
these tables in the middle pane of the table tab. Now that we have our blank database, we can
start adding some tables.

Creating a Table

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With database management systems, you need to create your tables before you can enter data.
Microsoft Access makes creating tables a breeze.

Using a blank database, we are going to create a table called Individual. This table will have
4 columns: IndivdidualId, FirstName, LastName, and DateCreated.

Design View

"Design View" enables you to create your database tables and specify the columns and their
data types etc. The following steps demonstrate how to switch to Design View and create a
table.

1. Ensuring you have your blank database open and you're on the following screen (with
the "Tables" tab selected), click "New":

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2. Select "Design View" and click "OK":

3. Fill out the details in the "Field Name" column and the "Data Type" column. Here, we
are creating the column names and specifying the type of data that can be entered into
them. Restricting the data type for each column is very important and helps
maintain data integrity. For example, it can prevent us from accidentally entering an
email address into a field for storing the current date.

Other options for each column include restricting the length of data (under "Field
Size"), setting a default value (this is used if someone leaves the field blank),
specifying whether the data is required, and more. Leave these options with their
default value for now.

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4. Click the "Save" icon, enter the table name ("Individual"), and click "OK":

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5. When prompted to set a primary key, click "Yes". (A primary key ensures that the
data in this column is unique - no two values can be the same. This is important for
when you need to select or reference data from this column):

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Datasheet view

You have now created a database table called "Individual". You can now switch between
"Design View" and "Datasheet View" as you wish. Datasheet View allows you to see any
data that has been entered into the table.

1. From the "View" dropdown icon, click "Datasheet View" (this changes the view from
Design View, to Datasheet View):

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2. You should now see something like this:

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We have just created a database table. This table doesn't have any data yet, but we have
created the columns that are required before any data is entered.

Creating a Form

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Here are the steps involved in creating a form in Access.

1. Ensuring the "Forms" tab is selected, click "New".

2. Select "Form Wizard" and click "OK". (For now, we'll use the "Form Wizard" to
create a form).

3. Select the fields that you need on your form and click "Next". In this case, we only
need the user to enter first name and last name, so we choose those two fields:

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4. Choose which layout you'd like your form to use. Leave this at the default
("Columnar") and click "Next":

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5. Choose which style you'd like your form to use. Leave this at the default ("Clouds")
and click "Next":

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 6. Choose a name for your form and click "Finish":

Your form should now look something like this:

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This is a very basic form and in most cases, you will have a lot more fields on your form.
You can see that the form is already presenting the first record in our Individual table.

• To jump to the next record, click the button.

• To jump to the last record, click the button.
• To jump past the last record so that it's blank and ready for a new record to be
entered, click the button.

Convert Access Database to Excel

A very common question many people have when learning Access is "How to convert an
Access database to an Excel spreadsheet?” . What they usually mean is, "How do they export
data from their Access database to an Excel spreadsheet".

Often they want to do this because they need to distribute the data to someone else who may
not have Microsoft Access. Also, in most cases, it's better to send someone a simple
spreadsheet containing exactly the data they require, than to send them the whole database
and then say, "Run the Individual query".

In any case, it's very easy to export data from Access to Excel. You can either export the
contents of a table, or the result of a query.

Here's how you go about doing this.

1. Click on the table or query that contains the data you want to export.

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2. From the "File" menu, click "Save As/Export".
3. Select "To an External File or Database".

4. Choose a location for your Excel spreadsheet (or double click on an existing one).

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