Database Help Please

sogs

Hi All,

Looking for help with database.....

I have created 3 tables and joined in relationship just learning how to do this!! a table for customers, a table for equipment and a table for invoices
now if a customer has two orders do I have to key in the customer information and then input information into other tables, not understanding this at all and have spent ages on the microsoft help pages and getting even more confused by the minute.

Hope you understand my problem

thank you all

BritRael

You've not given much detail, but I'm assuming you're using MS Access?
Have you made a form (for entering/displaying the data) and linked the tables to it? If so, as you enter new data into the form it will be entered into the respective table.

RobTang

Your orders table needs to have a foreign key which corrosponds to the primary key of the customer.

So you would enter a Customer into your database. then if you wanted to give that Customer an order( invoices), you would enter the invoice details along with the primary key (id) into the orders table.

Idealy your forms will manage database keys.

You will most likley need a 4th table to bridge invoices and equipment depending if what you're trying todo.

isofa

Unless each invoice has one item, you'll need a Line items table for invoice lines.

Have you joined the tables with primary and foreign keys? E.g. CustomerID (in the customer and invoice table), InvoiceID (in the invoice table and line table), EquipmentID (in the equipment table and line items or invoice table depending on the above question).

Use queries to join the data for the forms, then base the forms on the queries.

BritRael

Actually, I've just remembered that MS Access has a really good sample database with it called 'Northwinds'. Basically a fictitious company database of customers, staff, products, orders etc. If you're learning, this would be a great place to start. Plus, you could copy it and tailor it to suit your requirements.

bookduck

look up normalization in wiki too