Adding Value to a table field.

[marknufc]

Hi,


I am building a DB for my college, it is needed to replace a spreadsheet they have in place. The spreadsheet is used to monitor and track Students grades.

Each unit a student passes gives that student a certain number of points, the number of points depends on the grade (e.g. a student will get more points for a B than they would for a C). The point of the DB is to input all the students grades so that student can see how many points they have.

I was wondering if there is a way to add a value to a field, so if I put in a field that a student got a B grade the database would know how much a B grade is worth points wise. Each field should be added together to generate an overall score. Is this possible?

I am sorry if this doesn't make much sense its hard to explain with out showing you what I mean, think of it as working like an Excel spreadsheet.

 

[plog]

...it is needed to replace a spreadsheet they have in place...[Long Description]...think of it as working like an Excel spreadsheet

So, you have this spreadsheet and you want some new system that works like a spreadsheet? Sounds like your work is done then.

If however you want a database instead, I suggest you read up on normalization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization). Without sounding too much more like an A-hole, what you want to do is trivial and at the heart of how databases work. You would add a new table to hold which grades get which points. Then when you want to add them up, you join the tables and get the totals.

Honestly, read up on a few database tutorials.