Access 2013 Bible

Chapter 3: Creating Access Tables

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating a new table

Modifying the design of a table

Working with field properties

Specifying the primary key

Adding indexes

Documenting a table's design

Saving a new table

Working with tables

Adding data to a table

Using attachment fields

In this chapter, you learn how to create a new Access database and its tables. You establish the database container to hold your tables, forms, queries, reports, and code that you build as you learn Access. Finally, you create the actual tables used by the Collectible Mini Cars database.

On the Web

This chapter uses the examples in the database named Chapter03.accdb. If you haven't yet downloaded this file from the book's website, please do so now.

Table Types

To Access, a table is always just a table. But to your Access application, different tables serve different purposes. A database table fits into one of three types: object, transaction, or join. Knowing what type of table you're creating helps to determine how you create it.

Object tables

Object tables are the most common. Each record of this type of table holds information that relates to a real-world object. A customer is a real-world object and a record in a table named tblCustomers holds information about that customer. The fields in an object table reflect the characteristics of the object they represent. A City field that says Detroit maps to the actual city where the customer is. When creating an object table, think about the ...