15
Managing Data Sources
WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- The importance and benefits of RDBMS normalization
- The process of importing and linking to different file formats and data sources
- Considerations and techniques when using and managing data sources
WROX.COM CODE DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER
The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wiley.com/go/proaccess2013prog.com on the Download Code tab. The code is in the Chapter 15 download and individually named according to the code filenames listed throughout the chapter.
Microsoft Access is a very versatile tool. In addition to being a powerful rapid development tool for database applications combined with a management suite with a native file server database (ACE), Access is also a portal that enables you to manage a variety of data sources, ranging from other database engines, such as SQL Server, to flat files like Excel spreadsheets and text files.
In this chapter, you learn how to manage and work with various data sources using Access. Following a brief discussion about table structure and normalization, you will see how to link to local flat files and how to use ODBC to connect to external databases, whether they are on a server or a file server.
NORMALIZATION
A database development book would not be complete without discussing normalization. One of the cornerstones of relational database management systems (RDBMS) is the proper design of the structure, by identifying how to store the data in a way that promotes ...
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