What is a database? datasheets.

However, most database users prefer to use forms for

A database is a tool for collecting and organizing information. viewing, entering, and editing data in the tables.
Databases can store information about people, products, orders, or Forms provide an easy-to-use format for working with the data, and
anything else. Many databases start as a list in a word-processing you can also add functional elements, such as command buttons, to
program or spreadsheet. As the list grows bigger, redundancies and them. You can program the buttons to determine which data appears
inconsistencies begin to appear in the data. The data becomes hard to on the form, open other forms or reports, or perform a variety of
understand in list form, and there are limited ways of searching or other tasks. For example, you might have a form named "Customer
pulling subsets of data out for review. Once these problems start to Form" in which you work with customer data. The customer form
appear, it's a good idea to transfer the data to a database created by a might have a button which opens an order form where you can enter
database management system (DBMS), such as Office Access 2007. a new order for that customer.
A computerized database is a container of objects. One database can Forms also allow you to control how other users interact with the data
contain more than one table. For example, an inventory tracking in the database. For example, you can create a form that shows only
system that uses three tables is not three databases, but one database certain fields and allows only certain operations to be performed.
that contains three tables. Unless it has been specifically designed to This helps protect data and to ensure that the data is entered properly.
use data or code from another source, an Access database stores its Reports
tables in a single file, along with other objects, such as forms, reports, Reports are what you use to summarize and present data in the tables.
macros, and modules. Databases created in the Access 2007 format A report usually answers a specific question, such as "How much
have the file extension .accdb, and databases created in earlier Access money did we receive from each customer this year?" or "What cities
formats have the file extension .mdb. You can use Access 2007 to are our customers located in?" Each report can be formatted to
create files in earlier file formats (for example, Access 2000 and present the information in the most readable way possible.
Access 2002-2003). A report can be run at any time, and will always reflect the current
Using Access, you can: data in the database. Reports are generally formatted to be printed
 Add new data to a database, such as a new item in an out, but they can also be viewed on the screen, exported to another
inventory program, or sent as e-mail message.
 Edit existing data in the database, such as changing the Queries
current location of an item Queries are the real workhorses in a database, and can perform many
 Delete information, perhaps if an item is sold or discarded different functions. Their most common function is to retrieve
 Organize and view the data in different ways specific data from the tables. The data you want to see is usually
 Share the data with others via reports, e-mail messages, an spread across several tables, and queries allow you to view it in a
intranet , or the Internet single datasheet. Also, since you usually don't want to see all the
Top of Page records at once, queries let you add criteria to "filter" the data down
to just the records you want. Queries often serve as the record source
The parts of an Access database for forms and reports.
The following sections are short descriptions of the parts of a typical Certain queries are "updateable," meaning you can edit the data in the
Access database. To learn more about each part, follow the links in underlying tables via the query datasheet. If you are working in an
the See Also section of this article. updateable query, remember that your changes are actually being
made in the tables, not just in the query datasheet.
Tables Queries come in two basic varieties: select queries and action queries.
A database table is similar in appearance to a spreadsheet, in that data A select query simply retrieves the data and makes it available for
is stored in rows and columns. As a result, it is usually quite easy to use. You can view the results of the query on the screen, print it out,
import a spreadsheet into a database table. The main difference or copy it to the clipboard. Or, you can use the output of the query as
between storing your data in a spreadsheet and storing it in a database the record source for a form or report.
is in how the data is organized. An action query, as the name implies, performs a task with the data.
To get the most flexibility out of a database, the data needs to be Action queries can be used to create new tables, add data to existing
organized into tables so that redundancies don't occur. For example, tables, update data, or delete data.
if you're storing information about employees, each employee should Macros
only need to be entered once in a table that is set up just to hold Macros in Access can be thought of as a simplified programming
employee data. Data about products will be stored in its own table, language which you can use to add functionality to your database.
and data about branch offices will be stored in another table. This For example, you can attach a macro to a command button on a form
process is called normalization. so that the macro runs whenever the button is clicked. Macros contain
Each row in a table is referred to as a record. Records are where the actions that perform tasks, such as opening a report, running a query,
individual pieces of information are stored. Each record consists of or closing the database. Most database operations that you do
one or more fields. Fields correspond to the columns in the table. For manually can be automated by using macros, so they can be great
example, you might have a table named "Employees" where each time-saving devices.
record (row) contains information about a different employee, and Modules
each field (column) contains a different type of information, such as Modules, like macros, are objects you can use to add functionality to
first name, last name, address, and so on. Fields must be designated your database. Whereas you create macros in Access by choosing
as a certain data type, whether it's text, date or time, number, or some from a list of macro actions, you write modules in the Visual Basic
other type. for Applications (VBA) (Visual Basic for Applications (VBA): A
Another way to describe records and fields is to visualize a library's macro-language version of Microsoft Visual Basic that is used to
old-style card catalog. Each card in the cabinet corresponds to a program Microsoft Windows-based applications and is included with
record in the database. Each piece of information on an individual several Microsoft programs.) programming language. A module is a
card (author, title, and so on) corresponds to a field in the database. collection of declarations, statements, and procedures that are stored
Forms together as a unit. A module can be either a class module or a
Forms are sometimes referred to as "data entry screens." They are the standard module. Class modules are attached to forms or reports, and
interfaces you use to work with your data, and they often contain usually contain procedures that are specific to the form or report
command buttons that perform various commands. You can create a they're attached to. Standard modules contain general procedures that
database without using forms by simply editing your data in the table aren't associated with any other object. Standard modules are listed
under Modules in the Navigation Pane, whereas class modules are Concatenation (from Latin concatenare, to link together) is taking
not. two or more separately located things and placing them side-by-side
programming: creating a sequence of instructions to enable the
next to each other so that they can now be treated as one thing. In
computer to do something. Computer programming (often
computer programming and data processing, two or more character
shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing,
testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source strings are sometimes concatenated for the purpose of saving space
code of computer programs. This source code is written in a or so that they can be addressed as a single item.
programming language. ... 1. <text, operating system> (regexp, RE) One of the wild card
   patterns used by Perl and other languages, following Unix utilities
Definitions (2) such as grep, sed, and awk and editors such as vi and Emacs. Regular
expressions use conventions similar to but more elaborate than those
1. The process of developing and implementing various sets described under glob. A regular expression is a sequence of
of instructions to enable a computer to do a certain task. characters with the following meanings:
These instructions are considered computer programs and An ordinary character (not one of the special characters discussed
help the computer to operate smoothly. The language below) matches that character.
used to program computers is not understood by an A backslash (\) followed by any special character matches the special
character itself. The special characters are:
untrained eye. Computer programming continues to be a "." matches any character except NEWLINE; "RE*" (where the "*" is
necessary process as the Internet continues to expand called the "Kleene star") matches zero or more occurrences of RE. If
constant there is any choice, the longest leftmost matching string is chosen, in
most regexp flavours.
"^" at the beginning of an RE matches the start of a line and "$" at the
In programming, a constant is a value that never changes. The other
end of an RE matches the end of a line.
type of values that programs use is variables, symbols that can
[string] matches any one character in that string. If the first character
represent different values throughout the course of a program.
of the string is a "^" it matches any character except the remaining
A constant can be
characters in the string (and also usually excluding NEWLINE). "-"
 a number, like 25 or 3.6
may be used to indicate a range of consecutive ASCII characters.
 a character, like a or $ \( RE \) matches whatever RE matches and \n, where n is a digit,
 a character string, like "this is a string" matches whatever was matched by the RE between the nth \( and its
Constants are also used in spreadsheet applications to place non- corresponding \) earlier in the same RE. Many flavours use ( RE )
changing values in cells. In contrast, a spreadsheet formula can used instead of \( RE \).
produce a different value each time the spreadsheet is opened or The concatenation of REs is a RE that matches the concatenation of
changed. the strings matched by each RE. RE1 | RE2 matches whatever RE1 or
variable RE2 matches.
\< matches the beginning of a word and \> matches the end of a word.
A symbol or name that stands for a value. For example, in the In many flavours of regexp, \> and \< are replaced by "\b", the special
expression character for "word boundary".
x+y RE{m} matches m occurences of RE. RE{m,} matches m or more
x and y are variables. Variables can represent numeric values, occurences of RE. RE{m,n} matches between m and n occurences.
characters, character strings, or memory addresses. The exact details of how regexp will work in a given application vary
Variables play an important role in computer programming because greatly from flavour to flavour. A comprehensive survey of regexp
they enable programmers to write flexible programs. Rather than flavours is found in Friedl 1997 (see below).
entering data directly into a program, a programmer can use variables [Jeffrey E.F. Friedl, "Mastering Regular Expressions, O'Reilly,
to represent the data. Then, when the program is executed, the 1997].
variables are replaced with real data. This makes it possible for the 2. Any description of a pattern composed from combinations of
same program to process different sets of data. symbols and the three operators:
Every variable has a name, called the variable name, and a data type. Concatenation - pattern A concatenated with B matches a match for
A variable's data type indicates what sort of value the variable A followed by a match for B.
represents, such as whether it is an integer, a floating-point number, Or - pattern A-or-B matches either a match for A or a match for B.
or a character. Closure - zero or more matches for a pattern.
The opposite of a variable is a constant. Constants are values that The earliest form of regular expressions (and the term itself) were
never change. Because of their inflexibility, constants are used less invented by mathematician Stephen Cole Kleene in the mid-1950s, as
often than variables in programming. a notation to easily manipulate "regular sets", formal descriptions of
the behaviour of finite state machines, in regular algebra.