format to follow

[teiben]

What steps do you(s) follow or recommend to creating tables? Any standard questions? I was reading Erwin, data modeling book and didn't see a stardard check list of things to ask.

I think I need to set the following up in a db, (currently in an excel spreadsheet - has a lot of Redundancy in it) type of inspection checksheet, by machine (20 machines) and shifts (3) There are 20 or so questions that need to be filled in, (yes/no and numbers). any thoughts?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The very first step is to ask why you want to use Access. (No, not being flippant here.) What features of Access do you wish to use? What actions do you anticipate performing that are better done in Access? What is your final goal?

Once you know what you intend to do, you must remember the "Old Programmer's Rule." Access cannot do anything in memory that you yourself (as the designer) couldn't do on paper. So decide what you want Access to do for you in a more mechanistic sense. Figure out how you will enter the data. Decide how you will format it. Plan how to use or store the data. When you are planning for certain actions, consider what you need to have available to make that happen.

Once you have your approach figured out in a broad-brush sense, start looking at what you want to see as outputs. What should be on a report? Here is where another "Old Programmer's Rule" kicks in. Access can't tell you anything you didn't tell it first. That means that you have to have a WAY to tell it what you want to see. Which immediately splits into two issues. (1) Table design to support the requirements. (2) Input methodology that brings what you want into the tables so you CAN ask for it later.

Now, once you have gotten to this point that you can begin to really lay out a good table design.