Contents

DBMS, Purpose

Is Excel a Database???

Microsoft Access…

Joint Engine Technology

Architecture of JET

Queries in Access

GUI

Comparisons:

Excel and Access

Access and other DBMS

Introduction to Star office

What is a dbms?

A database is any organized collection of interrelated data.

Database Applications:

Banking: all transactions

Universities: registration, grades

Sales: customers, products, purchases

Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions

DBMS

A database management system (DBMS) such as Access, Oracle or SQL Server which provides the software tools you need to organize that data in a flexible manner.

It includes tools to add, modify or delete data from the database, ask queries about the data stored in the database and produce reports summarizing selected contents.

What is the purpose of a database management system?

Data Information Knowledge Action

Is to transform

Excel as a database

An Excel list consists of columns and rows of data structured in a specific way:

Each column contains the same category of data.

(similar to a field in a database)

Each row in the list contains all of the fields of data for one entity (similar to a record in a database), but called sets of

data in Excel’s terminology .

The first row of the list must contain a unique name at the top of each column.

Excel as Database

The row containing the column headings must be formatted (i.e. bold, larger font, italicized, etc.)

There can be blank cells in a column, but the entire row cannot be empty.

Data can be sorted alphabetically or numerically in Excel using the Quick Sort buttons on the Standard Toolbar.

Sorts can be in Ascending (A-Z) or Descending (Z-A) order.

Microsoft Access -Introduction

Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools

MS Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine. It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases

Joint Engine Technology

The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a database engine on which several Microsoft products have been built.

A database engine is the underlying component of a database, a collection of information stored on a computer in a systematic way.

Architecture of JET

Locking:

Jet allows multiple users to access the database concurrently.

To prevent that data from being corrupted or invalidated when multiple users try to write to the database, Jet employs a data write locking policy.

Any single user can only modify those database records (that is, items in the database) to which they have applied a lock that gives them exclusive access to the record until the lock is released.

Architecture of JET

Transaction processing:

Jet supports transaction processing for database systems that have this capability

A transaction is a series of operations performed on a database that must be done together — this is known as atomicity and is a part of ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability), concepts considered to be the key transaction processing features of a database management system.

Architecture of JET

Data integrity:

Jet enforces entity integrity and referential integrity.

Entity integrity is one of the key concepts of relational databases, and ensures that no record is able to be duplicated and also ensures that no field (or group of fields) that identify the record (the primary key) are NULL.

Referential integrity is where the fields that identify data that exist in a database table (the foreign key) must correspond with an existing primary key in that database

Architecture of JET

Queries:

They can be defined in Microsoft QBE (Query By Example), through the Microsoft Access SQL Window or through Access Basic's Data Access Objects (DAO) language.

These are then converted to an SQL SELECT statement. The query is then compiled — this involves parsing the query (involves syntax checking and determining the columns to query in the database table), then converted into an internal Jet query object format, which is then tokenized and organised into a tree like structure.

MS-Access query

• An MS-Access query is a set of stored SQL instructions that manipulate and/or select data from one or more tables.

• Select Query – Data grouping and/or filtering

• Make-Table Query – Select + creates/populates new table.

• Update Query – Updates fields from specified table data

• Append Query – Runs query on one table, appends results to a table

• Delete Query – Delete selected records from table

PA Harris, Vanderbilt University

MS Access Queries

PA Harris, Vanderbilt University

• Queries are extremely easy to set up/use and provide an up-to-date snapshot of your data at any time.

• Queries may be used to calculate values based upon existing fields, join fields from separate tables, globally update or delete data, and export linked/calculated data to external programs.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

• Although it is possible to enter data directly into a table, you can enhance data quality by forcing data entry through forms.

• Depending upon the users, we may wish to set things up so they never even see the database window.

• In other words, we can design your application so they only touch the data through programmed forms.

PA Harris, Vanderbilt University

USE EXCEL MS ACCESS

Validate basic user input (e.g., for a single field/cell

YES YES

Complex user input validation or events (if field X = Y, and field Z is empty, perform some action)

Challenging to accomplish Yes

Data arranged in a few columns without much repetition

Yes Yes

Rows/records supported Excel 2000 and Excel 2003: 65,535 rows

Excel 2007 and Excel 2010: 1,048,576 rows

Unlimited (up to 2GB/table)

USE EXCEL MS ACCESS

Simple cross-references Yes Yes

Complex data analysis/queries

Limited Yes

Events based on user actions (when user exits a field/cell do X, when they mouse over a field/cell do Y)

No Yes

Multiple users, but generally accessing data at different times

No Yes

Multiple users, accessing data at the same time

No Yes (but can be slow depending on network speed)

Frequent mass-update operations

Challenging to accomplish, time intensive

Yes

Multiple data entry forms No Yes

Mail Merge with Word Yes Yes

USE EXCEL MS ACCESS

Reporting Challenging to accomplish Yes

Automated backups Challenging to accomplish Possible with VB coding, backup software,or UI Builder for Microsoft Access

Record-level auditing No Possible with VB coding or UI Builder for Microsoft Access

Expertise Required Low For simple databases: Low/Moderate

For complex requirements: Moderate-to-High

Attaching files/links to fields No Yes (MS Access 2007 and Access 2010)

Sharing information on the Web

Yes (Excel 2007 and Excel 2010)

Yes (Microsoft Access 2010)

USE EXCEL MS ACCESS

Reporting Challenging to accomplish Yes

Automated backups Challenging to accomplish Possible with VB coding, backup software,or UI Builder for Microsoft Access

Record-level auditing No Possible with VB coding or UI Builder for Microsoft Access

Expertise Required Low For simple databases: Low/Moderate

For complex requirements: Moderate-to-High

Attaching files/links to fields No Yes (MS Access 2007 and Access 2010)

Sharing information on the Web

Yes (Excel 2007 and Excel 2010)

Yes (Microsoft Access 2010)

MS Access vs. MS Excel

MS Excel

spreadsheet

flat database

all information has a one-to-one relationship

MS Access

like multiple spreadsheets that are connected to one another.

one-to-many relationships

many-to-many relationships

MS Access vs. MS Excel

The choice is simple:

IF you have only one-to-one relationships, you need to

use MS Excel.

IF you have one-to-many or many-to-many

relationships, you need to use MS Access.

06/06/06

Examples

Printed Phone Directory (White Pages)

Flat database: One-to-one relationships

Library Catalog

Relational database: Many-to-many relationships Library patrons check out many books.

Books are checked out by many patrons.

University Class Schedule

Students have many professors.

Professors have many students.

Classes can be held in many classrooms.

06/06/06

MS-Access over Excel and other dbms

• MS Access is best used for long-term data storage and/or data sharing.

• MS Excel is best used for minor data collection, manipulation, and especially visualization.

• SPSS is best used for minor data collection and especially data analysis.

• It is easy to export data from MS Access to Excel

• Cheap, readily available

MS Access over Other DBMS

Easy to use (relative to other systems –Oracle may require one FTE to maintain the server as a database administrator and another FTE to serve as an application developer).

Includes front-end tools for rapid application development (RAD).

Other DBMS systems over MS-Access

MS-Access can handle a large number of records, but is somewhat slow compared to some of the high-end platforms.

Multiple users may use the database simultaneously, but MS-Access is known to become unstable with greater than 3-5 users.

CALC

StarOffice Calc:

It is Similar to Microsoft Excel.

Any part or whole part of calc can be printed in a desired format.

Calc data can viewed in the form of graph or

charts.

The calc information is transferred to any database or word processing software.

Applications:

-Payment of bills

-Invoices or bills

-Results analysis of student

-Financial accounting

-Income tax calculation

BASE

StarOffice Base:

AdabasD database, a program of similar scale to MicrosoftAccess. Front end to access Oracle, Informix, Sybase andothers.

They include over 30 predefined table schemas to help indesign.

Create Simple Queries without any SQL Knowledge

Graphical Interface in Forms

Share information through reports

StarOffice Base supports 11 database formats including Microsoft Access, Sql, MySql, Oracle, dBase and Excel.

Examples:

your address book

the telephone book

a price list

a product catalogue.

THANK YOU