Beginner question- use a table or a query to get what I need from existing db?

[JuliePM]

Hi!



I'm working on someone else's Access database for a small non-profit. They left notes saying that they built up the database of over 1970 records but used it primarily as a glorified spreadsheet. Now I want to query information from the database.

I want to ask the db: which companies gave money ... in 2011? 2012? At this particular event? Etc, times about 20 different giving opportunities.

The forms have cells in them where the previous administrator inputted this info whenever the organization received a donation.

I was successful in a previous attempt to query, when I asked the db for just names, addresses, and a couple other basic categories. My new attempt has me pulling fields in from an existing but different (old?) table, and my new query doesn't run.


This new query needs many more fields (~ 20), compared to the first one (that pointed to primarily names and addresses). The table I used to make the first query is not sufficient for this new query- it didn't have the detailed info I needed. I only could find one existing table that had been created - and was trying to pull from that. Could the old table lose its data?

Other ways I can think to ask this same question (choose whichever makes sense, or answer an even better question you hear inside all this confusion):

1. Are tables ever used to reorganize existing data into a more useable format so that you can query from it? Or just to bring in new data (like for data entry)? Why might I want to create a table?

2. Can anyone tell me why after creating a lovely looking query (from design view) and hitting run, no data would populate?

3. Do I need to create a new table before I can create my query?

4. Do I need to recreate a table and then run the query again from that table?

5. When do I want to point to tables vs queries in order to make a new selection of information?


Thanks!

Julie

[JuliePM]

Just a quick follow-up detail: there are only 3 tables created so far in this db, and they are all going to be out of date. That is one reason I thought I might need to make a new table, or otherwise take fields from more than one past queres in order to make my new query.

Thanks,
Julie

[Dal Jeanis]

A table contains stable information. usually, this information is permanent.

Some tables are used for importing temporary data, cleaning it up, and formatting it into the proper form so it can be added to a permanent table. Other temporary tables are used strategically as a way to store intermediate calculations when you are asking a really complicated question. At your stage of experience, you should not be needing this strategy.

A SELECT query contains the result of a question about information. The question can be as simple as "show me everything that is in my client table" to "show me only the records in my client table who live in Cincinatti, and where the name starts with Q, and where the client has at least three transactions in the purchase table. A query is not persistent - the database calculates the results and displays them for you, then throws them away when you are done.

There are several other types of queries called action queries, which, instead of displaying data, make a change to the data. These include MakeTable (which creates a new a table), Append (which adds records to an existing table), and Update (whcih changes the data in the underlying table).

A SELECT query that populates blank usually indicates that there is no data that matches your request. one example is if you asked for all the clients that matched a particular set of facts, who had sales transactions... and none of the clients that matched those criteria had any sales transactions. So the result set is empty.

You'd benefit a lot by going over to Access MVP Crystal Long's site and reviewing her extremely well written FREE book explaining Access Basics http://www.accessmvp.com/strive4peace/. She wrote it for Access 2003, but other than the screenshots and not having ribbons on the screens, it's pretty much the same.

[JuliePM]

Dal,

Thank you!

Tables - stable information, though some are used for importing, cleaning, and formatting data. Check.
Maybe my select query was empty because there was no data, I think because the table it pointed to was empty.

At any rate, I appreciate you taking the time, I just joined this forum and I'm already getting a response! I will go to Access MVP Crystal Long's site and check it out. It beats spending a bunch of time trying to find the best and most targeted information for my little dilemma.

Thank you again Dal and this whole forum for being available to beginners like me.

A table contains stable information. usually, this information is permanent.

Some tables are used for importing temporary data, cleaning it up, and formatting it into the proper form so it can be added to a permanent table. Other temporary tables are used strategically as a way to store intermediate calculations when you are asking a really complicated question. At your stage of experience, you should not be needing this strategy.

A SELECT query contains the result of a question about information. The question can be as simple as "show me everything that is in my client table" to "show me only the records in my client table who live in Cincinatti, and where the name starts with Q, and where the client has at least three transactions in the purchase table. A query is not persistent - the database calculates the results and displays them for you, then throws them away when you are done.

There are several other types of queries called action queries, which, instead of displaying data, make a change to the data. These include MakeTable (which creates a new a table), Append (which adds records to an existing table), and Update (whcih changes the data in the underlying table).

A SELECT query that populates blank usually indicates that there is no data that matches your request. one example is if you asked for all the clients that matched a particular set of facts, who had sales transactions... and none of the clients that matched those criteria had any sales transactions. So the result set is empty.

You'd benefit a lot by going over to Access MVP Crystal Long's site and reviewing her extremely well written FREE book explaining Access Basics http://www.accessmvp.com/strive4peace/. She wrote it for Access 2003, but other than the screenshots and not having ribbons on the screens, it's pretty much the same.

[Dal Jeanis]

You're welcome. If your question has been answered, please mark the thread solved. Top of page, under "Thread tools".