Access™ 2007 Bible

Chapter 4. Selecting Data with Queries

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding the different types of Access queries

• Creating queries

• Selecting tables and fields for queries

• Displaying information in queries

• Sorting information in queries

• Selecting specific records in queries

• Printing the results of queries

• Adding more than one table to a query

• Working around query limitations

• Understanding types of joins

• Changing the type of join

• Creating an inner join and an outer join

Queries are an essential part of any database application. Queries are the tools that enable you and your users to extract data from multiple tables, combine it in useful ways, and present it to the user as a datasheet, on a form, or as a printed report.

You may have heard the old cliché, "Queries convert data to information." To a certain extent, this statement is true (that's why it's a cliché). The data contained within tables is not particularly useful because, for the most part, the data in tables appears in no particular order. Also, in a properly normalized database, important information is spread out among a number of different tables. Queries are what draw these various data sources together and present the combined information in such a way that users can actually work with the data.

In this chapter, you learn what a query is and how to create them. Using the Sales (tblSales), Contacts (tblContacts), Sales Line Items (tblSalesLineItems), and Products (tblProducts) tables, you create several types of queries for the Access Auto ...