Table design help!
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From: Hannah on 13 Nov 2009 07:24 I'm a bit of an access novice (training on basics, searching for help on the rest) building a database for a research project. I've tried having a wee look for this question but I can't spot it anywhere (probably because it's obvious to everyone else). I'm designing my tables and what to put in them and I've hit on something I'm not very sure about. For some questions there's a yes or no question (e.g. "do you eat cheese?) and a follow up if they say yes, theres an "if yes, which of these types..." follow up question. I'm not sure whether I need to structure these into two different tables or whether I can use one table for both? I was planning to use tick boxes for these but if there's a better way, please let me know! Thanks very much for help in advance - I don't know where I'd be without these groups (well I do, somewhere not very good!)
From: Hannah on 13 Nov 2009 07:26 P.S. what I totally forgot to say was whether it's okay to have a table with just one field (e.g. just "do you eat cheese?" tick box)? Want to make sure I'm doing this right from the beginning! "Hannah" wrote: > I'm a bit of an access novice (training on basics, searching for help on the > rest) building a database for a research project. I've tried having a wee > look for this question but I can't spot it anywhere (probably because it's > obvious to everyone else). > > I'm designing my tables and what to put in them and I've hit on something > I'm not very sure about. For some questions there's a yes or no question > (e.g. "do you eat cheese?) and a follow up if they say yes, theres an "if > yes, which of these types..." follow up question. I'm not sure whether I need > to structure these into two different tables or whether I can use one table > for both? I was planning to use tick boxes for these but if there's a better > way, please let me know! Thanks very much for help in advance - I don't know > where I'd be without these groups (well I do, somewhere not very good!)
From: Fred on 13 Nov 2009 15:06 Hello Hanna, I noticed that nobody answered. To be honest, your post indicates confustion on even the fundamentals, and a responding would be even tougher than starting at zero because they would have to start by undoing you wanting to talk about the cart before the horse, as your post seeks to do. And you've given zero informaiton about the horse leaving nowhere to start. Well, if you survived that paragraph, you need to start by defining for us (if not for yourself) the nature of the real-world process that you want to databse, and decide and determine what the "entities" aree that you want to database. I'm guessing that one of these entities will be "questions" beyond that you gave us nothin' to go on. - Maybe your entities include people (who are taking the survey) - Depending on what the nature of potential answers are (just yes/no? Multiple choice from a set list? Free-form writing in the blank? anoth entity might be potential (allowable) answers on multiple choice questions - Maybe your entities include surveys (which are groups of questions) if there are multiple surveys - Maybe your entities include instancs of answers to questions You'll have to tell us. The answer to your "if-then" question will be dependent on your structure, which you are going to build upon your "entities" answer. Also on you defining whether or not a particular answer leads to just one "next question" vs. a group of them. I know that that makes your "next step" pretty complicated right now, but I think that such is inevitable, and hopefully this helped a bit.
From: Jeff Boyce on 13 Nov 2009 15:41 In addition to Fred's observations, consider whether you need to reinvent the wheel. If this is a survey/questionnaire, perhaps work already done by Duane H. could get you started: http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/OtherLibraries.asp#Hookom,Duane Regards Jeff Boyce Microsoft Access MVP -- Disclaimer: This author may have received products and services mentioned in this post. Mention and/or description of a product or service herein does not constitute endorsement thereof. Any code or pseudocode included in this post is offered "as is", with no guarantee as to suitability. You can thank the FTC of the USA for making this disclaimer possible/necessary. "Hannah" <Hannah(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:C2471BCC-6D49-4FFD-A16E-CA04E15F9BA0(a)microsoft.com... > I'm a bit of an access novice (training on basics, searching for help on > the > rest) building a database for a research project. I've tried having a wee > look for this question but I can't spot it anywhere (probably because it's > obvious to everyone else). > > I'm designing my tables and what to put in them and I've hit on something > I'm not very sure about. For some questions there's a yes or no question > (e.g. "do you eat cheese?) and a follow up if they say yes, theres an "if > yes, which of these types..." follow up question. I'm not sure whether I > need > to structure these into two different tables or whether I can use one > table > for both? I was planning to use tick boxes for these but if there's a > better > way, please let me know! Thanks very much for help in advance - I don't > know > where I'd be without these groups (well I do, somewhere not very good!)
From: Steve on 13 Nov 2009 20:04
Hello Hannah, Look to see if you have a 1:1 relationship or 1:m relationship. It is rare to model 1:1 relationships with multiple tables. On the other hand, a 1:m relationship always requires multiple tables. Steve santus(a)penn.com "Hannah" <Hannah(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:C2471BCC-6D49-4FFD-A16E-CA04E15F9BA0(a)microsoft.com... > I'm a bit of an access novice (training on basics, searching for help on > the > rest) building a database for a research project. I've tried having a wee > look for this question but I can't spot it anywhere (probably because it's > obvious to everyone else). > > I'm designing my tables and what to put in them and I've hit on something > I'm not very sure about. For some questions there's a yes or no question > (e.g. "do you eat cheese?) and a follow up if they say yes, theres an "if > yes, which of these types..." follow up question. I'm not sure whether I > need > to structure these into two different tables or whether I can use one > table > for both? I was planning to use tick boxes for these but if there's a > better > way, please let me know! Thanks very much for help in advance - I don't > know > where I'd be without these groups (well I do, somewhere not very good!) |