It is almost impossible for anyone who had used the Microsoft Office suite not to hear of the application that is used to create, manage, maintain and save databases: Microsoft Access. Compared to other database creation and maintaining software packages available on the market, Microsoft Access has several advantages: it is included in the Office suit, which means that you get more programs when you buy the collection. Similar to all other Microsoft applications, Access has the advantage of being very powerful at its job, yet intuitive and easy to learn.

The program has many facilities and it is one of the easiest to use applications to create databases. Microsoft Access structures its information by splitting down the database into several sections: the main database file, the tables, which contain the data about the main topic and the fields, which represent the different categories with a table. The next step after creating a database and its afferent fields is to enter the desired data. All you have to do is to clock on the Database View and enter the desired data into each field. One thing you should keep in mind before starting a new record: the field called Soc Soc # must contain some information, as it is the Primary Key (a primary key is used to relate a table to foreign keys in other tables. While it is recommended to set a primary key, this step is not mandatory). From now on you can manipulate the data in any way you want and need in the most pure form of what you see is what you get.

If you have created multiple tables, then you need a method of telling the program to bring the information back together. To do this in Microsoft Access, you will need to define some relationship rules between the existing tables. After you have done so, you can create all sorts of queries and reports from several tables in the same time. For this, Microsoft Access will match data in key fields (key fields are fields that has the same name in two or more tables). Most of the time, the matched fields are the primary key from one table (this provides a unique identifier for each record) and a foreign key (a key that is present in another field). Creating relationships between tables is easy: go to the database window and click on the Tools option bar which you will find at the top. Next select the Tables that you want to create the relationships between. Click on them and select the Add Button setting. Next, you have to drag the primary key pf the Parent table and drop it into the same field in the Child table. Now select the Enforce Referential Integrity option that you can find in the dialog window below. Below the Enforce Referential Integrity option, you can notice two more settings: Cascade Update Related Fields and Cascade Delete Related Records. If the first one is selected (Cascade Update Related Fields), then when you change a primary key in the primary table, the program will automatically update the matching value in all related records found. If the second option is selected (Cascade Delete Related Records), when you delete a record in the primary table will also delete all the other related records found.

Now in the Relationships dialog window you should see a line connecting the two fields. Using table relationships is very useful for when you are working with multiple tables in order to prevent the duplication of information in a database.