Access access. MS Access: What is a Database? Difference of Access from Excel

Microsoft Access 2003 is one of the first versions of the popular database management system. Using this program, you can collect information from spreadsheets, process text documents, as well as the most common database formats. The application is capable of analyzing data, as well as creating web pages and a variety of applications. Naturally, you will need some skills to work with Access 2003, but compared to managing professional programs, they will be minimal. And the product, unlike its other counterparts, is distributed free of charge.

Access 2003 can be downloaded for both home and corporate purposes, but in the latter case, the software will be more useful. You can use it as a DBMS for stand-alone management or file servers. You can interact with other sources using "linked tables" and "server queries".


Microsoft Access 2007

Microsoft Access 2007 is a database program that allows you to make changes to them, organize reporting and share documents. Even those users who do not have special knowledge will be able to develop applications using ready-made free templates.

Access 2007 allows you to tailor your designs to suit the needs of your business.

Microsoft Access 2010

Microsoft Access 2010 is an application that allows you to combine information from different sources in one database. This version was released under the motto "Simplicity in everything" - you don't need to be a specialist to work with it. The added web databases significantly improved the interaction with information, simplified the processes of data tracking, reporting and sharing.

Fully implemented in Access 2010, ribbon management provides only the tools you need most without getting confused by the multitude of commands and settings.

Microsoft Access 2013

Microsoft Access 2013 is one of the new versions of the database management system (DBMS). In the app, you will find the necessary features and tools to help you organize data maintenance, improve reporting, and share information with a large number of users.

You can also download the program to create a web application. In Access 2013, you only need to select the type of tracked data (projects, tasks, contacts), after which the application will independently create a structure to which you can add information. Basic commands and navigation will be built into the project, so after creation, you can immediately jump to use.

Microsoft Access 2016

Microsoft Access 2016 is much more than a simple database design program. It's a whole system for tracking information, generating reports, and sharing information. It helps to make informed and balanced conclusions and choose the best solutions for certain tasks. Not very experienced users can download and use Access 2016, because even without having a lot of knowledge in this area, you can quickly develop the necessary application by converting free ready-made templates to suit your needs.

This version of the program offers bases of a new type: a web application is created in the MS Access 2016 environment, and is used through a browser as a SharePoint service. To create it, you need to decide on the type of data that you need to track, after which the program will independently generate the necessary structure. It will have basic commands and navigation built in so you can start working right away.

Access 2010 is a database creation and management program. To understand Access, you must first understand databases.

In this article, you will learn about databases and how they are used. You will learn about the differences between data management in Access and Microsoft Excel.

What is a database?

A database is a collection of data that is stored in a computer system. Databases allow their users to quickly and easily enter, access and analyze their data. They are such a useful tool that you see them all the time. Have you ever waited for a doctor's registrar to enter your personal information into a computer, or watched a store employee use a computer to find out if an item was in stock? Then you saw the database in action.

The easiest way to understand what a database is is to think of it as a collection of lists. Think of one of the databases mentioned above: a patient database in a doctor's office. What lists are contained in such a database? Well, for starters, there is a list of patient names. Then there is a list of past appointments, a list with a medical history for each patient, a list of contact information, etc.

This applies to all databases, from the simplest to the most complex. For example, if you want to bake cookies, then you can save a database containing the recipes you know how to make and the friends you give those recipes to. This is one of the simplest databases. It contains two lists: a list of your friends and a list of cookie baking recipes.

However, if you were a professional baker, you would have many more lists to keep track of: customer list, list of products sold, price list, order list ... it goes on and on. The more lists added, the more complex the database will become.

In Access, lists are a little more complex than the ones you write on paper. Access stores its lists of data in tables to store even more detailed information. In the table below, the list of people in the hobbyist baker's database has been expanded to include other relevant information about friends.

If you are familiar with other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, it might remind you of Excel, allowing you to organize your data in a similar way. In fact, you can create a similar table in Excel.

Why use a database?

If a database is essentially a collection of lists stored in tables and you can create tables in Excel, why would you need a real database? While Excel is great at storing and organizing numbers, Access is much more efficient at handling non-numeric data such as names and descriptions. Non-numeric data plays a significant role in almost any database, and it is important to be able to sort and analyze it.

However, what databases really do, besides any other way of storing data, is connectivity. We refer to a database as the ones you will be working with in Access a relational database. A relational database can understand how lists and the objects within them relate to each other. To explore this idea, let's go back to a simple database with two lists: the names of your friends and the cookie recipes you know how to make. You decided to create a third list to keep track of the batches of cookies you make and who they are for. Since you are only making them, you know the recipe and you are only passing them on to your friends, this new list will get all its information from the lists you made earlier.

See how the third list uses the words that appeared in the first two lists? The database is able to understand that Ivan Ivanovich and Sour Cream Cookies on the list are the same things as Ivan Ivanovich and Sour Cream Cookies in the first two lists. This relationship seems obvious, and the person will immediately understand it. However, an Excel workbook will not be able to.

Difference of Access from Excel

Excel would treat all of these things as separate and unrelated pieces of information. In Excel, you will need to enter every single information about a person or type of cookie every time you mention it, because this database will not be relative like an Access database. Simply put, relational databases can recognize what a person can do: if the same words appear in multiple lists, they refer to the same thing.

The fact that relational databases can process information in this way allows you to enter, search, and analyze data in more than one table at a time. All of these things would be difficult to do in Excel, but in Access even complex tasks can be simplified and made reasonably user-friendly.

Hello everyone! I am often asked how and where to download Microsoft Access for free. To be honest, I'm tired of explaining the same thing for the hundredth time, so I decided to write a short article on how and where to download Microsoft Access for free. Be sure to read this text to the end, you will find a lot of useful information for yourself, as well as a small bonus.

Method 1: Official site of Microsoft developer

To begin with, the Microsoft Access program is included in the Microsoft Office suite of programs, in which you can also find Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, etc. Apart from the entire Office suite, Microsoft Access, you cannot but buy or download. If you are interested in a licensed product, then the first thing you should do is go to the official Microsoft website in the "buy Office" section to select the appropriate version. As of mid-October 2017, the available versions in the official Microsoft store are Office 365 and office 2016.

As you can see, Microsoft Access is included in the Office 365 Home package, which costs 3,399 rubles per year (or 339 rubles per month), and the Office 365 Personal package, which costs less than 2,699 rubles per year (269 rubles per month). month). You can see the advantages of both versions in the screenshot. Also note that Microsoft Access is not included in Office 2016.
Expensive or not, everyone decides for himself.

Method 2: Microsoft Access Runtime

The second no less popular question: I downloaded Microsoft Access from the official site, but my database does not open. Most likely, we are not talking about full-fledged Microsoft Access, but about the Microsoft Access runtime. This software can indeed be downloaded for free from the developer's official website, but at the end you will receive a "cropped" Access, which will allow you to distribute Access applications among users who do not have full-fledged Access installed. In other words, you can only view databases, but you cannot edit or create new databases.

Method 3: search the internet

If you are not satisfied with the first two options, then you can try to find and download Microsoft Access for free on the Internet through search engines. I warn you right away that this option is not legal, and you take all the risks of downloading unlicensed software. For requests such as "download Microsoft Access" or "Microsoft Access for free" there are millions of sites on the Internet, which I highly recommend against using. There can be both outright "leftist" sites that distribute all kinds of virus software, and just dummy sites on which nothing but spent nerves will get you.

Method 4: torrents

The fourth way how and where to download Microsoft Access for free is torrent trackers. This is a safer method than downloading from regular sites, but in any case, the torrent tracker should be verified and not arousing suspicion. From practice I will say that you can trust such giants as rutracker and nnm-club. But again, you should understand that downloading Microsoft Access even from trackers is not legal. Although it seems that using torrents should not cause difficulties, many questions still arise, how and where to download Microsoft Access for free on a torrent.
Back to the beginning of the article, I will remind you that the Microsoft Access program is included in the Microsoft Office suite of programs. Many people on the torrent are looking not for Microsoft Office, but for Microsoft Access and, accordingly, find little.

Conclusion

In this article, I told 4 ways how and where to download Microsoft Access for free. Which option suits you, it is, of course, up to you to decide. Thanks for reading the article to the end, so the promised bonus is below. In any case, it is strongly recommended to use only licensed Microsoft Access. But, if you need, download Microsoft Access for free for informational purposes only, i.e. a couple of verified links below. Once again, the links are presented for informational purposes only, so after getting acquainted with Microsoft Access, it is recommended to uninstall it from your PC and purchase the full version in the official Microsoft store.

Any user of Windows-based computer systems knows that Microsoft's standard office suite of any version includes a unique editor, Access. This is what the program is, how to work with it, now it will be considered. Naturally, only the initial basics will be given here, since a description of absolutely all the features of the application will take more than one page.

What is Access?

What is this program? Access is a fully functional system for working with any type of relational model with the ability to dynamically exchange data with other applications or Internet publications. It provides for the use of tools for automating the processing of information of any type, which is presented in a structured form.

In addition, Access is also a package that provides support for ActiveX controls, which significantly expands the program's capabilities in terms of the fact that it can use not only tabular or textual components, but also multimedia and objects on the Internet. Connections set in the application allow accurate tracking of changes in any of them with automatic adjustment of parameters in others.

The main directions of using the application

It is not surprising that in most cases it is used to fully automate the analysis of some processes in accounting, business, etc. Due to its universal structure, the program can eliminate the appearance of the so-called data redundancy when it is required to change one parameter not by entering a new one. , but by correcting the old one, so that its change is reflected in all related databases.

For example, an enterprise uses Access to keep track of suppliers, customers, and the events in which they are involved. One vendor changes bank details. It is enough to change them, as automatic correction will affect all other databases. The data will be replaced, rather than the introduction of new ones along with the existing ones. And this change will affect the same related activities. That is, in a sense, the user gets complete automation.

The same applies, for example, when a certain group of goods is sold through the corresponding division of the enterprise, the commodity items are automatically written off in the database of the goods that are in stock. But these are the simplest examples. In fact, the application has much wider possibilities.

Microsoft Access structure

As for the convenience of work, it is achieved due to the presence of the main elements that play a crucial role in the analysis and processing of database data. Among the main elements are the following:

  • table - an element that stores basic information in a specific format (numeric, text, graphic, etc.);
  • query - a means of accessing related items, other databases, or third-party programs;
  • form - presentation of information or data in a user-friendly form;
  • report - output of processed results;
  • a macro is an executable element that allows you to perform certain actions when an event occurs, a request is created, a report is generated;
  • module - means of the Visual Basic language that allows you to significantly expand the capabilities of the program through the creation of procedures and the use of numerous functions.

Communication with other programs and external databases

As it is already clear, Access is a program that allows you not only to use your own data entered by the user, but also to link them together. The capabilities of the application are such that information can be imported from other applications (FoxPro, Paradox, Excel, Word, etc.). To simplify the procedures, the data can not be imported, but linked, and not only with the specified programs, but also with sources in the network environment or on the Internet.

The binding process itself is based on queries like how SQL databases work (Access also supports them).

Creation from templates

In Access, the table is the main element. In appearance, this component is very similar to Excel spreadsheets, but Access's capabilities are much wider, and the principles of working with such elements have their own distinctive features.

However, it is quite easy to create your own database when you run the program. After the appearance of the welcome window, the user is given a choice of templates, on the basis of which the future database structure will be created in the form of a table. This is the so-called Backstage view. Here you can find built-in templates that will be useful for specific tasks, or refer to the search on the official Microsoft resource if none of them in the list meet the user's needs (although this is unlikely).

Database from scratch

If nothing suits the user and he wants to make a database on his own, when creating a new file in the corresponding menu, select an empty database. There are some limitations to consider here. For example, desktop databases do not support web publishing, and web databases are inconsistent with some of the previous features.

Having created the initial table, you can proceed to entering data. Please note that data can only be entered in adjacent columns and rows. Also, you should not add empty cells between them, as is done in Excel. In addition, the most important condition is that each column must contain data of only one type, that is, if the format initially provides for the use of date and time, the information with calculations based on the exponent entered in the column will not be recognized. So, if possible, plan the table from this perspective. To simplify the work, you can also use a special constructor mode.

The nuances of importing and linking data with other sources

As for importing data, the program's capabilities are practically unlimited. The main condition is only that the imported data should be split according to the type of tabular (like tables in Excel or Word). If the import is made, for example, in a text version from Notepad, you can create a similar structure using the tabulator (Tab key).

You can use SharePoint lists and also link data to make things easier. To do this, use a special command on the external data tab located in the import and bind group. It offers ready-made solutions (Excel, Word, etc.). When choosing, it remains only to indicate the location of the desired file, the save location in the current database and confirm the selection.

Conclusion

This is the Access application. The program is very popular among a wide range of users, since its developers have tried to combine in it the capabilities of other software products of this type. And this is what made this application very flexible in customization and automated application of most of the functions. It remains to add that Access is a very powerful data manipulation tool, even though only the basics of the application have been covered here.

To make informed and effective decisions in production activities, in economic management and in politics, a modern specialist must be able to receive, accumulate, store and process data using computers and communication means, presenting the result in the form of visual documents. In modern society, information technologies are developing very rapidly, they penetrate into all spheres of human activity.

In different areas of the economy, you often have to work with data from different sources, each of which is associated with a specific type of activity. Some knowledge and organizational skills are required to coordinate all of this data.

Microsoft's product Access combines information from different sources in a single relational database. It creates forms, queries, and reports that allow you to quickly and efficiently update data, get answers to questions, search for the data you need, analyze the data, and print reports, charts, and mailing labels.

The purpose of this course work is to consider the design in theory and the creation in practice of a database in the product of Microsoft Corporation for database management "Microsoft Access".

Access System is an end-user toolbox for database management. It includes designers for tables, forms, queries and reports. This system can also be considered as an application development environment. By using macros or modules to automate problem solving, you can create user-centric applications as powerful as applications written directly in programming languages. In doing so, they will include buttons, menus and dialog boxes. By programming in VBA, you can create programs as powerful as Access itself.

Create applications without programming using Access macros. Spreadsheet and database users should be familiar with many key concepts used in Access. Before starting to work with any software product, it is important to understand its capabilities and the types of tasks for which it is intended. Microsoft Access (hereinafter referred to as simply Access) is a multifaceted product, the use of which is limited only by the user's imagination.

Access fully implements relational database management. The system supports primary and foreign keys and ensures data integrity at the kernel level (which prevents incompatible update or delete operations). In addition, tables in Access are equipped with data validation tools to prevent incorrect input, regardless of how it is performed, and each table field has its own format and standard descriptions, which greatly simplifies data entry. Access supports all required field types, including text, numeric, counter, currency, date / time, MEMO, boolean, hyperlink, and OLE object fields. If no values ​​are found in the fields during special processing, the system provides full support for null values.

Basic concepts of MS Access databases

1.1 Summary of MSAccess

Microsoft Access is a desktop DBMS (database management system) of a relational type. The advantage of Access is that it has a very simple graphical interface that allows you not only to create your own database, but also to develop applications using built-in tools.

Unlike other desktop DBMSs, Access stores all data in a single file, although it distributes them across different tables, as a relational DBMS should. This data includes not only the information in the tables, but also other database objects that will be described below.

To perform almost all basic operations, Access offers a large number of Wizards that do the bulk of the work for the user when working with data and developing applications, help to avoid routine actions and facilitate the work of an inexperienced user in programming.

Features of MS Access that differ from the idea of ​​an "ideal" relational DBMS.

Creation of a multiuser database Access and obtaining simultaneous access of several users to a common database is possible in a local peer-to-peer network or in a network with a file server. The network provides hardware and software support for the exchange of data between computers. Access monitors the differentiation of access of different users to the database and ensures data protection. With simultaneous work. Since Access is not a client-server DBMS, its capabilities to provide multi-user work are somewhat limited. Usually, to access data over the network from several workstations, the Access database file (with the * .mdb extension) is uploaded to the file server. At the same time, data processing is carried out mainly on the client - where the application is launched, due to the principles of organizing file DBMS. This factor limits the use of Access to ensure the work of many users (more than 15-20) and with a large amount of data in tables, since the load on the network increases many times over.

In terms of maintaining data integrity, Access meets only small to medium complexity database models. It lacks tools such as triggers and stored procedures, which forces developers to leave the maintenance of the database business logic to the client program.

With regard to information security and access control, Access does not have reliable standard tools. Standard protection methods include database password protection and user password protection. Removal of such protection is not difficult for a specialist.

However, with the known drawbacks, MSAccess has a lot of advantages over systems of this class.

First of all, we can note the prevalence, which is due to the fact that Access is a product of Microsoft, the software and operating systems of which are used by the majority of personal computer users. MSAccess is fully compatible with the Windows operating system, is constantly updated by the manufacturer, and supports many languages.

Overall, MSAccess provides a large number of features at a relatively low cost. It is also necessary to note the focus on the user with different professional training, which is expressed in the presence of a large number of auxiliary tools (Masters, as already noted), a developed help system and an intuitive interface. These tools make it easier to design, create a database and retrieve data from it.

MSAccess provides the non-programmer with a variety of interactive tools that allow him to create applications without resorting to developing queries in SQL or programming macros or modules in VBA.

Access has broad capabilities for importing / exporting data in various formats, from Excel tables and text files, to almost any server-side DBMS through the ODBC mechanism.

Another important advantage of MSAccess is its advanced built-in application development tools. Most applications distributed to users contain some amount of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code. Since VBA is the only tool for performing many common tasks in Access (working with variables, building SQL commands while the program is running, error handling, using the Windows API, etc.), you need to know and understand it to create more or less complex applications. the MSAccess object model.

One of the programming tools in Access is the macro language. Programs created in this language are called macros and make it easy to link individual actions implemented using forms, requests, reports. Macros are controlled by events that are triggered by user actions during interactive work with data through forms or system events.

It turns out that Access, having all the features of a DBMS, provides additional capabilities. It is not only a flexible and easy-to-use DBMS, but also a system for developing database-driven applications.

1.2 Databases and database management systems

A database is an organized structure for storing information. Modern databases store not only data, but also information.

This statement is easy to clarify if, for example, consider the library database. It contains all the necessary information about authors, books, readers, etc. Both library workers and readers who need to find a publication can have access to this database. But among them there is hardly a person who has access to the entire database completely and at the same time is able to single-handedly make arbitrary changes to it. In addition to data, the database contains methods and tools that allow each of the employees to operate only with those data that are within his competence. As a result of the interaction of the data contained in the database with the methods available to specific employees, information is formed that they consume and on the basis of which, within their own competence, they enter and edit data.