Chapter 4. Creating Your Database and Tables

Creating a New Database	86
Creating Your First Simple Table by Entering Data	92
Creating a Table Using the Table Wizard	94
Creating a Table in Design View	100
Defining Fields	100
Defining a Primary Key	118
Defining a Table Validation Rule	118
Understanding Other Table Properties	121
Defining Relationships	123
Adding Indexes	130
Setting Table Design Options	133
Printing a Table Definition	136
Database Limitations	137

After you design the tables for your database, defining them in a Microsoft Access desktop database (.mdb file) is incredibly easy. This chapter shows you how it’s done. You’ll learn how to

• Create a new database application using a database template

• Create a new empty database for your own custom application

• Create a simple table by entering data directly in the table

Get a jump start on defining custom tables by using the Table Wizard to

• Define your own tables from scratch by using table Design view

• Select the best data type for each field

• Define the primary key for your table

• Set validation rules for your fields and tables

• Tell Access what relationships to maintain between your tables

• Optimize data retrieval by adding indexes

• Set options that affect how you work in table Design view

• Print a table definition