Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Access 2002 in 21 Days

Chapter 6. Introducing Queries

As promised, today you’ll get a look at queries. In the early days of databases—really, before they existed on small computers—queries were the heart of what it meant to be a database administrator. You had to write the query in an often-complex, syntactically abstruse language. It took a lot of study and practice to get it right.

Clearly small-computer users weren’t interested in making such a large educational investment. Most had day jobs they needed database programs to assist them with. They did not want to become professional database administrators. The solution for most was the query by example. Instead of entering your query using a language, you’d give the database an example of what you wish to select on. ...