Need to Enter a Value Once for Multiple Records

[thompmj]

Hi Everyone,

I'm not sure how simple this question is, I'm too much of a newbie. Here goes. I work for a foundry and we bring in lots of raw material for conversion to alloy. Each incoming lot is assigned a number on arrival and is then broken down and processed in batches, typically 9. Each of these batches is then assigned a number as well, again a consecutive number which also includes a letter (the letter designates the product). Process data for each batch is kept and final QC analysis data is also recorded.

My question is: how do I set up a form on which I input the lot number, customer, and source once but that fills in that info for each row in the table with which the form is associated? After conversion, I would like to be able to analyze the process data by one of those 3 values so I need them filled in in the table (I plan to pull the data from the Access table into Minitab for statistical analysis).

Thanks for your help!
Mike

 

[jdraw]

I suggest you review this tutorial to get a good understanding of table design and relationships.
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/Tutorials/Entity_Relationship.zip

 

[thompmj]

J,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I am not sure that the tutorial is solving the problem I have. At the moment I have 1 table, which holds process data. I want to set up a data entry form. On that form, I would like to be able to input lot number, customer, and source once but have it populate the 9 rows in the table associated with that form.

Thanks.
Mike

 

[bikermo]

it sounds like what you have is a lot of repeated data in the same table, and j's suggesting you review the tutorial on how to break it up to avoid repeating, called normalizing. otherwise you don't have a relational database, you have a fancy spreadsheet.

sounds to me like what you probably want to do, once you've normalized your data (roger's access library was IMMENSELY helpful to me when i was doing that btw) is have your "repeated" information as the main form and add your "unique" information as a subform.

 

[thompmj]

Biker,

Ok, NOW I get it! Thanks for the explanation, makes so much more sense now. I appreciate the help.

Mike

 

[bikermo]

you're welcome. glad we could help!