Database design queries

[<AvgAccess]

Hi Everyone

I have been asked to establish some sort of spreadsheet for a colleague which maintains horse race details for analysis.

The data is collected by a series of XML feeds from various websites. I have written a some test code in Excel which obtains the various data and returns it in the range A1:LXX (where XX is the last horse in the race). Which I am sure can be done in Access

Before i proceed any further I would like to get the storage of the data right. I feel that Excel is not a suitable for this task because of the relationships that will need to be established, where Access (from my very limited knowledge) is better suited for this sort of task.

I will be collecting the data on all horse races in Australia for the past 2 years including:

• race location;
• race number;
• race date
• race time;
• race distance;
• horses in the race;
  
  • barrier drawn
  • jockey
  • weight
  • scratched
  • jockey change details
  
  
• race results
  
  • first;
  • second;
  • third;
  • ...
  
  
• and other information available

Should I establish one database or multiple databases, one to record general race details and a second to record specific race details? i.e:
1. General race details

• race location;
• race number;
• race date
• race time;
• race distance;
• horses in the race
• race results

2. Specific race details

• horses in the race
  
  • barrier drawn
  • jockey
  • weight
  • scratched
  • jockey change details
  
  

Any advice anyone wold be kind enough to offer about whether a database is the way to go and/or how to go about setting it up would be greatly appreciated. I am flying blind at the moment.


Cheers

[June7]

By 'establish one database or multiple databases' did you actually mean tables? This calls for several tables, how many depends on how much info you want to retain. Consider:

GeneralRaceInfo
RaceID (primary key)
etc

RaceDetails
RaceID (foreign key)
HorseID (foreign key)
JockeyID (foreign key)
JockeyWeight
etc

HorseInfo
HorseID (primary key)
etc

JockeyInfo
JockeyID (primary key)
etc

[orange]

Further to June's comments, here is a tutorial that leads you through a process to take your facts, and design appropriate tables and relationships.
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/T...lationship.zip

The basic steps.
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/f..._Databases.zip