Advice on Design of Entry Forms

[Zorkmid]

Hi there,

Im building a database to keep track of Isolated patients in a hospital. I have a master table that keeps track of patients, and comments, and a child table that keeps track of individual isolation periods for statistical purposes.

My question is, how should I go about setting up the forms to enter data into the database. I need things like: Name, Infection Type, Location etc. Ideally I want one form that will do everything I need, but Im willing to have a form for adding new child records under the master record. I have not built forms around tables linked this way before and Id appreciate any advice.

-Z

 

[Kryst51]

Do a main form with your parent table with a subform for your child table linked by the primary key of your parent table and the foreign key in your child table.

If you need more info about how to do that, please ask.

 

[Zorkmid]

I understand how to use subforms like this, this was my plan. I see my main form as somewhat of a search form that will either create a new master record and child record if it's a new patient, or create a new child record under an existing master record.

I admit that I have no idea what a foreign key is. Can you help me further ?

-Z

 

[Kryst51]

In your child table there should be a field name with the same name as the primary key of your parent table, this is called a foreign key, it will "lookup" the values from your parent table, and link the two together. I have recently learned that it is not good to link them at the table level, but I think that as a beginner that might be OK, Right click on the data type box, and there should be a lookup option which will start a wizard that can guide you.