|
Text
You may type in any alphabetical/numerical
data that you desire - up to a maximum of 255 characters. As
indicated, this is a text field, so you can't do mathematical
calculations. Examples of Text data are: names, addresses,
stock numbers, zip codes.
Memo
This field is for lots of text. You can have up to 32,000
characters.
Number
This field is for numbers where you want to add, average, and do
numerical calculations. This field can be a very large size, so
when we get to Field Properties, we'll talk about "sizing" this
field so it doesn't take up to much "space" in storage.
Date/Time Dates
and Times. You may format these later, as you may desire.
Currency
Good old Dollars ($). You may format these later, as you may
desire.
Counter
This field is an "automatic" counter that assigns a number each
time you put data into a new field.
Yes/No
This is a "True/False" or "Yes/No" type of field. You can make
it anything you desire under Field Properties.
OLE Object This
means "Object Link Embedding" which indicates you can insert a
graphic, picture, sound, etc. Pretty neat to put a photograph
in a personnel record or a picture of an inventory item in the
stock record (advanced stuff).
We'll leave Last Name as a Text
Data Type. To the right under Description you may make
any remarks you feel are appropriate to someone who may want to
know how/why you designed the field as you did.
Now notice in the lower part of the
screen under Field Properties that a box appeared
when you selected the Text Data Type. This box is
"tailored" to the Text Data Type that you
selected above. Your Field Properties should look like the one
below when you finish doing the steps indicated below.
 Field
Properties
Click- in each area (to the right of
the words) as you read about it below
Field Size Is
currently set to 50 characters. That's pretty large
for a name. So, click-
in
this area and change the number to 25.
Format Now
click-in the Format Area. Next tap the F1
function key to activate Help.
Since you are in the
Format area, Help will be "tailored to" this area.
When the Help Window appears, click-on Text and Memo
Data Types (Notice that you click-on different Data Types
depending on the Type you selected.) This gives you an idea of
some formats. We'll use one later. Now click-on the “X”
in the upper right corner of the Help Window to
close it.
Input Mask
We'll come back to this feature later.
Caption
Look at the Gray Help area to the right.
Default Value
We'll come back to this feature later.
Validation Rule
We'll come back to this feature later.
Validation Text
We'll come back to this feature later.
Required
Look at the Gray Help area to the right.
Allow Zero Length
Look at the Gray Help area to the right.
Indexed
Look at the Gray Help area to the right and tap F1 (Help)
Unicode Compression
Look at the Gray Help area to the right.
Now we will repeat this process and
create different Field Names and Data Types (as
necessary). Type-in the Field Names as indicated
below and set them to the Data Types and
Sizes indicated.
Field Name
Data Type
Size
Last name
Text
25 (Already Completed)
First name
Text 20
Social Security #
Text 15
Here we'll use an Input Mask.
Click-in the Input Mask area. Notice there
are three "dots" (...) in a box on the right.
Click-on the three dots. A message will appear: "Must
Save Table First. Save Now?".
Click-on Yes.
In the Save As Window we'll save our Table
as Personnel,
so type-in Personnel in the area under Table
Name:, and click-on OK. Next a box will appear
saying There is No Primary Key defined.
Click on NO. (Keying is somewhat
advanced. You can get a good description by searching in Help
for Keying.)
The Input Mask Wizard will show you some
Sample Masks (you may scroll up/down to view them). We'll use
Social Security Number, so click-on it. Your
screen should look like the one below.
Now click-on Next> at the bottom of the
window. You will now see a default number of 000-00-0000 using
dashes (-) between the numbers. You can use anything you want.
We'll leave it as is, so click-on Next> again. On this
menu screen you’ll see two choices. Click-in the
little circle to the left of With symbols in the mask,
like this:. Sometimes, when we use Access data as a part of
mail merges or in labels, if we don’t save the dashes, they
won’t appear in our document. So, it always a good idea to save
dashes. Now, click on Next> again. Now click-on
Finish. You will see some “special” numbers written in the
Input Mask area for Social Security #. When you begin to enter
data in this field, you’ll see how this works. Your Field
Properties area should look like the one below.
Now continue entering the following information
in the Field Name and Data Type areas as we did above.
Street address
Text 25
City
Text 20
State
Text 2
Here we'll us a Format.
First make the Field Size 2 then click-in the area to the
right of Format.
A down pointing triangle, like the one on
the left, will appear on the right side of
the Format area. If you click-on it the area will appear
blank (that's because we haven't entered a Format). Tap
F1 key in the row of Function Keys at the top
of the
keyboard. A
Help menu screen
“tailored” to Format will
appear like the one
below.
Since we are working with a Text Data Type,
click-on Text and Memo Data Types. Notice that a
> will change any alphabetic
character you type into all upper case letters.
Now point and click the “X” in the upper right
hand corner of the Format Help Screen (notice that the Help
Window closes "automatically").
Now type a >
in the Format area. Your Field Properties area should
look like the one below.
Continue entering the following information in
the Field Name and Data Type areas as we did above.
Zip
Text 5
Gender
Text 1
Insert a > in the
Format area to make all gender entries become
capitals (like you just did for State).
Favorite Number
Number (Note: this is the first Number
field)
Here we'll learn about Numbers and the
Validation Rule and Validation Text properties.
We'll limit the person's favorite number to a number between
1 and 999. Leave the Field Size set to Long
Integer (Tap the F1
Function Key [Help] to view the different Number Field Size
descriptions). After you have viewed the
Number Help screens, click the small “X” in the
upper right hand corner of the Help screen to close
the Help screen.
Now click-in the area to the
right of Decimal Places. It currently indicates
Auto. When you click there you will see a little down
triangle on the right side of the area. Click-on
the little triangle. Select “0.” This indicates
that decimal places are not allowed in the Favorite Number.
Next, click-in the Validation Rule
area. We'll "build" a mathematical expression that
will only allow numbers from 1 to 999. Type in the
following expression (in the area to the right of Validation
Rule):
> 0 and < 1000
This tells Access that the number entered must be
between 1 and 999.
You’ll notice that when you click-in
the Validation Rule area that three periods (…)
appear just like they did in Input Mask. If you want to
click-on the three periods they will bring up an Expression
Builder which you can use to create the mathematical formula
above. Please note that frequently, if you are really
not great at math, that the Expression Builder can cause
problems. Sometimes, the Expression Builder will “insert” a
<<expr>> in the formula. If it does this, delete the
<<expr>>. This will confuse Access and will frequently cause
the program to “stop” until you remove <<expr>>. So, if
you want to look at Expression Builder, please do so. But – be
careful.
If someone does not enter a number
correctly, an error message will appear. Now we'll create
an appropriate error message. Click-in the
Validation Text area and type-in:
Favorite Number must be between 1 and 999.
When you finish all of the above, your Field
Properties should look like the one below.
Date hired
Date/Time
In Format click-on the small down
triangle on the right side of the Format area and
choose Short Date. In the Input Mask area
click-on the three dots (...), save the table, and
again choose Short Date, then Next>, then Next>
again, then Finish. (This will insert a /
between the day, month, year.)
Salary
Currency
In the Decimal Places area click-on the
small down triangle on the right side and select
0 (zero) – this indicate “no cents.” Notice the Default
Value of 0 income will be inserted if no Salary
figure is entered. We'll leave it at zero.
Application Received
Yes/No
We’ll make this a “Yes/No” or “check
box” field. When we begin entering data in the database, you’ll
see how this “box” works.
Point to and click on File in the Menu
Bar then click on Save As. The Save As Window will
appear and Personnel should appear under Table Name: Click-on
OK. You could also click on the small diskette Save Button
if you are used to doing this.
|