[mso] Starting Access Project (naming fields)
- From: "Peter Chiavaro" <kp@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 12:19:26 -0500
Good Morning Pam,
The advise of James La Borde in his previous post should be
followed to the "T". Of course you are one tiny step ahead since
you've already put together your first table.
To summarize Jame's post. You should always DRAW your database
design on paper before you start. That is the absolute first thing
you need to do.
Draw boxes and put all your field names inside the boxes.
Your "One Table" database will be easy enough to start with, but
some of the field names you have chosen are very bad for
programmers, and some of them absolutely MUST be changed. For
example. "Catalog #" and "Color-Size #" etc.
You should never use the pound sign (#) in a field name. You
should also avoid using a dash (-) or spaces, and NEVER use any
other symbols like commas or apostrophes.
The "official" way to name fields is for names to be prefixed with
"fld"? Like this:
fldDisc
fldCatalog
fldSize
This is only helpful to people who write VBA Code. Code writers
LOVE IT when EVERYTHING in the database is prefixed. That includes
tables, queries, reports, and EVERYTHING ELSE. It seems to be VERY
VERY important to them.
Tables are to be named like this:
tblInventory
tblCustomers
tblProducts
Reports like this:
rptInventory
rptCustomers
rptProducts
Queries like this:
qryInventory
qryCustomers
qryProducts
Since you have only one table and there is no other programming
attached, it is VERY VERY easy to change all the names, and
NOTHING else will be affected.
Actually, there is a whole damn chapter in the book about "Naming
Stuff" the objects in your database.
I feel that since you are at the "foundation level" in your
database, this would be an EXCELLENT little project for the
list-members to follow and apply OUR examples to whatever THEY
need for their little business or "in house" needs.
Back to "Naming Stuff".
I do not write code, therefore I do not use any of the
aforementioned prefixes. On the other hand, since this will be a
shared project, I suggest we go with the "official" prefixed
names. This way, not only would it be "official", but also, when
we need help from the code writer list-member dweebs, they won't
hesitate to help us. Non-prefixed names make them very
uncomfortable, and they might turn a blind eye since we've got it
all wrong from the get-go.
Other little rules to follow for "naming stuff" (besides the
prefixes)
Keep the names as condensed as possible, but at the same time,
fairly easy to recognize what the field holds. For example:
Product Description
Might better named.
"FldProductDesc" or "fldProdDesc"
Color-Description
Might be better named:
"fldColorDesc"?. And so on.
More Later.
-----Original Message-----
From: Pam [mailto:ltf01@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 10:45 AM
To: kp@xxxxxxxx
Subject: access-Pam
Hi Peter,
Thank you again for your offer to help. I very much appreciate
it.
The current data base I have contains no fields for inventory
totals at the moment. In fact, when I started it I had never done
a data base. But now, with nearly 6,200 entries already added and
atleast 3000-5000 more to add it seems a shame not to adapt this
one if possible. At present it is a single table db. The fields
are, and typical entries might look like this:
Disc / Catalog # / Color-Size# / Color-Description / Size
/ Product Description / QtyPerPkg / Price
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