Introduction to
Microsoft's Access

by K. Yue

1. Resources

• MS Access is a relational database management system.
• MS Access is a mature product and there are plenty of tutorials, examples, and resources.
• It is based on the relational model.
• To start, it is necessary to become familiar with the following basic concepts:
  1. table
  2. row
  3. column
  4. column value
  5. data type
  6. data subtype
  7. primary key
  8. foreign key
  9. relationship
  10. query
  11. SQL
• As a GUI tool, there are also various important views.
  1. Datasheet
  2. Query
  3. Design
• Our course only requires less than 1% of the features provided by MS Access.
• As a starter, make sure you know how to:
  1. create a table
  2. populate a table
  3. create a simple query
• Not covered in Access in this course, but important:
  1. create form
  2. create report

Classroom Demonstration

(1) New database:

Donation(DonationId, LastName, FirstName, EMail, Address, Time)

Data:

Bun Yue, yue@uhcl.edu, $100, today

and so on.

(2) Existing database: pvfc.mdb (in course page of UHCL Blackboard).