Access 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Chapter 7. Creating Custom Queries

• Creating Queries in the Query Design Window

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, you learned everything you need to construct queries, but the ones you’ve seen so far have been fairly simple ones. After all, you were only asking the database simple questions. Next, to paraphrase that popular TV chef, you’re gonna kick it up a notch—by creating queries that ask tougher questions. You’re also going to learn how to extract information from your database that isn’t explicitly stated there—that is, you’ll learn how to build calculations in Access that add, multiply, divide, and process your information to generate new data right in the query.

But first, you’re going to work outside those helpful but sometimes limiting Access wizards to create your own queries using the Query Design window. The more complex and powerful your queries get, the more likely you’ll need the flexibility the design window offers over a wizard.

Creating Queries in the Query Design Window

The Query Design window, as shown in Figure 7-1, isn’t a completely foreign critter to you: It looks very much like the Database Design window used for creating filters. The table or tables used as the data source for a query appear in the upper half of the Query Design window. If only one table is used, a box listing the fields available in that table appears at the top left; if multiple tables are used, then each table gets its own listing box spread out across the top half of the window. The lower half of ...