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Anyone good in Access that can lend a hand?

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boykster:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on February 18, 2008, 09:52:06 am ---
--- Quote from: pinballjim on February 18, 2008, 09:45:31 am ---Maybe they don't know how to use -your- weird database system, but they'd understand the principles here thoroughly.

--- End quote ---
Schema design is common across any DBMS.  It is independent of application.  The only thing that differs, really, from Access to Oracle is economy of scale, which is what boykster was talking about.

--- End quote ---

Yep, I agree.  the details will be different (what datatype will the indentity key be, do you need to manually creat the trigger to autoincrement or is it handled by the db engine, how do you create the queries to join the tables and build the model of the data, etc.) but the overal idea is the same. 

I actually avoid Access like the plague; unfortunately the institute that I work at has a ton of small access 'databases' floating around that we need to get data out of and into a real RDBMS and that often involves a lot of cleanup of ugly schemas and data structures. 

Friends don't let friends use Access!!!! :angry:

patrickl:

--- Quote from: boykster on February 18, 2008, 02:18:36 pm ---Friends don't let friends use Access!!!! :angry:

--- End quote ---
Well I'd rather they use Access than Excel.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: patrickl on February 18, 2008, 02:23:46 pm ---Well I'd rather they use Access than Excel.

--- End quote ---


Excel isn't a database engine.  That said, I see a lot of managers try to use it as one.

boykster:
Depending on how loose of a definition you use for "database", then sure Excel is one, but it's definately not a database engine. 


--- Quote from: patrickl on February 18, 2008, 02:23:46 pm ---Well I'd rather they use Access than Excel.

--- End quote ---

I dunno; in some ways I'd rather they used Excel....they can't get into as much trouble with Excel as they can in Access.  I've seen some really scary access applications.

The problem with desktop db systems (access/filemaker pro/ foxpro / etc) is that someone will build something that's a barely adequate solution, and then it will grow out of control.  They're rarely documented well, if at all, and usually built by someone who knows a very little about data design and very little about programming.  We've got a system here where I work that is the biggest monster access database I've ever seen.  The code is so spaghetti, the business logic so convoluted and buried into the UI, and the schema design makes frankenstein's monster look like a supermodel.  And this system is the heart of the business process for one of the key departments where I work.  At least they dumped the tables into a MSSQL backend.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: boykster on February 18, 2008, 02:37:44 pm ---Depending on how loose of a definition you use for "database", then sure Excel is one, but it's definately not a database engine. 

--- End quote ---


You could apply that logic to a pen and a piece of paper, too.  At some point you have to draw a line between a table or two and an actual working database (even if you have to call Access a working database).

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