Hi you all-

Greetings from New Orleans! First, I think this site is wonderful and I wish I would have stumbled upon it earlier. Second, I hope this is the right place to ask this rather huge question.

Okay, I had one class in DB in school and the data we used was not dynamic-it was static. I have been charged with creating a db, in access, to track partipants coming to a wellness program. thus, they are going to have multiple visits taking the same identified readings (which are going to be identified in access as the field names). also, I am thinking that there are also going to be many tables with some duplicate information in them such as name, insurance, etc?

So, my first question is I am rather confused with the relationship issue. I am almost positive that the field (patient name) is going to appear in every table. Does that mean that that should be the PK for all the tables so that I can link it? I hope I am not asking stupid questions!

Second, if one of the tables deals with physiological readings, that are taken over and over each time they come, is there a way to automatically update the table with the new information?

thank you so much for your time and I hope to hear from someone soon

:rolleyes:

tulanian,

I'm sure your DB will grow in complexity but I think you want to start with at least two tables, something along these lines...

TablePatients
Fields: PatientID (autonumber, primary), LastName, FirstName, etc.

Keep a record for each patient.

TableReadings
Fields: ReadingID (autonumber, primary), ReadDate, PatientID, etc.

Keep a record for each reading.

One patient will have -- if I read your post correctly -- many readings. Therefore these two tables comprise a many to one relationship, with patientID serving as a cross-reference.

In the Patients table the PatientID field is called the primary key while it's called the foreign key in the readings table. It is the field that links together the tables, giving the data meaning...

Regards,
Tim

Just bear in mind that the PatientID in the tblPatients is an Autonumber Data Type and the PatientID in the Readings table is a Number Data Type.

thank you!