Help a stand up comic get organized!!

marcusninja

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So I recently decided to put all of my bits for stand up comedy into a database. I thought this would be a good way to build a set script quickly and easily – the idea was to build a database using an input form with several categories (length, edginess, etc). Then I could query the database on specific criteria i.e. “bits that are shorter than two minutes, family friendly and on the topic of politics” From there I wanted to pick and choose amongst the query results which bits would go in a report and then print it out script style.

Presumably this is all possible, just not for me right now at my level of knowledge...
I have built the database and the form, but I am getting held up on the part that is supposed to make it all worthwhile. I am hoping you can help me out…
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Length Field 1 error – whenever I try to do anything I get the program asking me “Enter parameter value, Length.Field1 . If I put in a number it over-rides my database and puts that value in for every entry regardless of what I had put in before. I’m not sure what happened as it was working at one point, but broke when I noticed the name of the “length” field had only said “field1” and re-named it to say “length” I figured this screwed with the relationship so I rebuilt that, but still the error persists

-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Queries. I keep trying to add criteria for a search and whenever I do this error appears: “Data type mismatch in criteria expression.” I thought it had something to do with the format of each field but they are all set to text and I am typing a text expression in quotation marks that matches the field entry exactly.

-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Reports – I want to have title and length o the bit on one row, then in a row below it, the body of the bit in a column all to itself, so it’s not wasting a bunch of space by having all three columns on the same row. This would then repeat for the next bit in line. I can’t figure out how to do this – is it possible?
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Length field – for some reason it won’t let me put in decimal places in the length field's numbers. When I try to change the format of it to decimal in design view, it says I have to delete relationships first. I deleted its relationship and I still got this error. Again, this was working before I changed the name of the length field. I dunno what I broke.
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Forms – In the area of “category” and “style” and “audience” I would like instead of a drop down list, a checkbox style one, where you can specify multiple values. For example under “style” I might want to organize a bit as “absurdist” and also “story-telling” so it can be queried under both of those values.
I am using Microsoft Access 2007 on a Windows computer. I have uploaded the database sans the meat of the bits to rapidshare if you want to take a look: http://rapidshare.com/files/415296390/Joel_Buxton_Bit_Database_HELP.accdb
Any help greatly appreciated. Please remember that I am VERY new to database programming and might have difficulty with a lot of specialized language.
Thanks for helping a noob!

Joel
 
I don't think I have ever heard of Access being used for such a purpose, so you are unique. Well done.

I would approach this in the following manner:

Table: I would start with an autonumbering field which would number each joke or bit. I would then categorize each entry (Family, Sex, Politics etc). Next entry would be to categorize by type of joke (bit, one-liner, short, long or story). I would then give it a short title based on the actual joke (Example: Why chicken crossed road). For the actual text of the joke, I would use a memo type field which will allow you to enter a lot of data.

Queries - In the criteria, enter into each field you would like to do a search on the type of joke you are looking for. Examples: in Category enter [Category] (square brackets required), then in Type enter [Type].
When you run the query you will be promted to enter the Category and Type of joke. If you enter Politics into Category and Story into Type, you should get all of your story jokes about politics.

As to your errors:
You have probably selected Integer as your field type for Length (which is the default). Intergers are whole numbers (no decimals). Change it to Single or Double type.

"Data Type Mismatch" generally means you are trying to enter text into a field you have designated as a number or vice versa. You can store numbers in a text field, but if you do you can't do any calculations with them. Calculations can only be done in fields that are designated as numeric.

Your form drop down boxes (called Combo or List boxes in Access) can be filled with whichever data you wish. The easiest way to do this is to create a separate table for each combo box which contains the desired selections. Then use the table to create the combo box. You can add or delete selections from the table later on if required.
Examples: Using my previous example for Category, create a new table called Category. It has only 1 field, which is also named Category. In the new table enter into separate records Family Sex Politics. The go to your form in design view and using the tool bar, place a combo box on the form. The wizard should start automatically. The table used for the combo box will be Category. You also want to save the selected record to Category. Save the form and open it in Form View. You now have a combo box that will select the category of joke in your joke table from the category table. You should have a choice of Sex, Family or Politics. If you wish to add additional selections, add them to the category table.
 
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Thanks very much for your help, this is all very useful info!
 

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