Hands-On Microsoft Access: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Access Skills

Chapter 8. Queries

“You use a query to answer questions about your database” is a catchy phrase sometimes used in Access training materials. It's helpful as a starting point for discussing queries—but only as a starting point. As a definition, it leaves out action queries, which don't answer questions but rather change your database. More important, it doesn't embrace the extraordinary breadth of a query's powers, which extend to viewing, integrating, editing, and analyzing data in a multitude of ways. Indeed, it might be more appropriate to ask which Access tasks a query can't do than what it can.

In this chapter, I cover select queries, the most common query and probably what you think of when you hear “query.” I begin by discussing some basic ...