Access Database Design and Programming, Second Edition

Chapter 5. Query Languages and the Relational Algebra

In the first part of this book, we have tried to make a convincing argument that good database design is important to the efficient use of a database. As we have seen, this generally involves breaking the data up into separate pieces (tables). Of course, this implies that we need methods for piecing the data back together again in various forms.

After all, one of the main functions of a database program is to allow the user to view the data in a variety of ways. When data are stored in multiple tables, it is necessary to piece the data back together to provide these various views. For instance, we might want to see a list of all publishers that publish books priced under $10.00. This requires gathering data from more than one table. The point is that, by breaking data into separate tables, we must often go to the trouble of piecing the data back together in order to get a comprehensive view of those data.

Thus, we can state the following important maxim:

As a direct consequence of good database design, we often need to use methods for piecing data from several tables into a single coherent form.

Many database applications provide the user with relatively easy ways to create comprehensive views of data from many tables. For instance, Microsoft Access provides a graphical interface to create queries for that purpose. Our goal in this chapter is to understand how a database application such as Access goes about providing this service. ...