Introduction to Data Relationships

The Keys to a Relationship

Introduction to Relationships

Imagine you have been asked to create a database for a hotel. The manager gives you many pieces of paper that are currently used to handle the business. One of the papers has the names of customers, the times they staid in the hotel, the rates paid for the rented rooms, etc. As you examine the list, you see various names of customers. One of the names on one line is Gwendolyn Sims.

On another line, you see a name as Gwen Simms. You ask the manager whether it is the same or another customer. The manager says it is the same customer. On another piece of paper, you see the name Gwenn Simm. After asking, the manager confirms once again that it is the same customer, just typed differently. A computer database helps to solve this type of problem so that information can be typed once, in one list. Then, the information in that list can be made available to other lists that can use it by selecting it, instead of re-typing it.

So far in our databases, we created a table with the necessary columns. To perform data entry, we were typing the necessary value in each field. If we needed another table, we would just create one.

This made it possible for a database to have as many tables as we wanted, except that these lists did not communicate. There was a risk of error if we tried to enter the same information in various lists.

One of the rules a database developer should follow is to avoid duplicate entry of data. That is, the same piece of information should not be entered in two different lists. For example, when a potential customer wants to rent a room at the hotel, you can create an account that the clerk can use to enter the customer's information in one table. This information can consist of the name, the phone number, the emergency contact (name and phone number), etc:

In the same way, you would need a list of the rooms available for renting to customers. Each room would hold some information such as the type of room (regular bedroom, studio, or conference room, etc), the type of bed (queen, double, or king), the rate, and the availability. We cannot put the room information in the customer's information because the room does not belong to the customer and, even if a particular customer A is renting a room 104 today, that room would be rented to another customer next time. If we put the room information in a customer's information, when another customer comes, we would have to re-enter the same room information into the other customer's record. This is not professional and is prone to error. Therefore, the customer and room's information should be kept separate.

After creating the customer information and the rooms lists, to rent a room, we can select the customer and associate him or her to a room:

One of the problems we need to solve is to keep track of the customer's room occupancy: what night the customer stays in the allocated room and how much is charged for the room for one night or for each night the customer uses it. The manager might also have indicated that the hotel offers wireless Internet access but the customer has to pay a one-time fee for it if he or she wants it. The customers are also allowed to use the phone in their room but they must pay for each phone call placed outside the hotel. Therefore, simply assigning the room to a customer does not take care of tracking the regular charges and expenses. To solve this problem, we can create another list in which we would enter some information for the customer (such as his or her name or an account number) and some room information (such as the room number):

This is the idea behind a relational database. A relational database is an application that contains two or more tables so that information in one table is made available to another table or other tables that need(s) it. The information is entered once in one particular table. If the same information is needed in another table, it is simply identified one way or another. This reduces, and can eliminate, the likelihood of mistakes that result from duplicate data.

A Primary Key

As its name implies, to create a relational database, you must have a way for tables to communicate or relate to each other. To start, for a table to make its information available to the other lists, the table must have a way to be identified. This is done by creating a field used to refer to that table. This field is called a primary key. The primary key can be one field or it can be represented by many fields.

To make a field primary key, display its table in the Design View. You have two options:

• You can right-click the field and click Primary Key
• In the Tools section of the Design tab of the Ribbon, you can click the Primary Key button

The field that is made the primary key would then appear with a key icon to its left.

To create a primary key of more than one field, display the table in Design View and select, as a group, the fields that would constitute the primary key. Then:

• You can right-click one of the selected fields of the group and click Primary Key
   
  
• In the Tools section of the Design tab of the Ribbon, you can click the Primary Key button

The fields would then appear each with a key icon to its left:

One of the rules that the primary key must follow is that it must be able to uniquely identify each record in the table. If you make a field a primary key, you can instruct the person performing data entry to make sure no two records have the same value for that field. Sometimes this can be easy to implement. For example in a small company of 2 to 20 people, it is usually easy to make sure that each employee is assigned a unique number. In a database with many records such as a department store that gives credit cards to its customer, it can be difficult to give a unique account number to each customer. In fact in this case, the clerk performing data entry might not have the appropriate number for a customer when creating his or her account. Fortunately, Microsoft Access (like most database environments) provides a quick fix to this.

To automatically have a unique identifier associated with each new record created on a table, you can create a field whose data type is AutoNumber. When a field receives this data type and when the clerk creates the first record, it receives the number 1. Every time a new record is created, the number is increased and assigned to the field. The number never repeats. If a record is deleted, the numbers are not reset: the deleted record is gone with its assigned unique number. This ensures that each record keeps a unique number.

The AutoNumber in Microsoft Access is not a real data type, just as, except for Text, none of the items in the Data Type combo box of the Design View of the table is a true data type. Their names are only made friendly to help you identify their types. AutoNumber is actually a long integer.

Practical Learning: Introducing Relationships

1. Start Microsoft Access and create a Blank Database
2. Set the name of the database as Ceil Inn1 and click Create
3. Close the default table without saving it
4. To create a new table, on the Ribbon, click Create and, in the Tables section, click the Table Design
5. Set the name of the first field to CustomerID and set its Data Type to AutoNumber
    
   
6. In the bottom section of the table, notice that the actual data type is specified as Long Integer.
   While the field is still selected, in the Tools section of the Ribbon, click the Primary Key button
7. Set its Caption to Cutomer ID
8. In the upper section of the table, under CustomerID, create the other fields as follows:
    

   Field Name	Data Type	Caption	Field Size	Indexed
   CustomerID (Primary Key)	AutoNumber	Customer ID
   AccountNumber	Text	Account #	20	Yes (No Duplicate)
   FullName	Text	Full Name	80
   PhoneNumber	Text	Phone #	40
   EmergencyName	Text	Emergency Name	50
   EmergencyPhone	Text	Emergency Phone	40
   Notes	Memo

9. Save the table as Customers and close it
10. To create a form for the customers table, in the Navigation Pane, click Customers: Table.
    On the Ribbon, click Create and, in the Forms section, click Form Design
11. Save the form as Customers and, using the Fields list, design it as follows (no need to exactly match everything; for example, use only the fonts you have in your computer):
     
    
12. Save the form and switch it to Form View
     
    
13. Create the following records and notice that the first column uses incremental numbers:
     

    Cust ID	Account #	Full Name	Phone #	Emergency Name	Emergency Phone
    1	294209	Doris Wilson	703-416-0934	Gabriela Dawson	703-931-1000
    2	608502	Caroline Lomey	301-652-0700	Albert Lomey	301-412-5055
    3	208405	Peter Carney	990-585-1886	Spencer Miles	990-750-8666
    4	284085	Lucy Chen	425-979-7413	Edward Lamb	425-720-9247
    5	629305	Joan Davids	202-789-0500	Rebecca Boiron	202-399-3600
    6	180204	Randy Whittaker	703-631-1200	Bryan Rattner	703-506-9200
    7	204795	Juliette Beckins	410-944-1440	Bernard Brodsky	410-385-2235
    8	608208	Alfred Owens	804-798-3257	Jane Owens	240-631-1445
    9	902840	Daniel Peters	624-802-1686	Grace Peters	877-490-9333
    10	660820	Anne Sandt	953-172-9347	William Sandt	953-279-2475
    11	946090	Peter Carney	990-585-1886	Spencer Miles	990-750-8666
    12	100752	Caroline Lomey	301-652-0700	Albert Lomey	301-412-5055

14. Close the form
15. On the Ribbon, click Create and, in the Tables section, click Table Design
16. Set the first field name to EmployeeID and its data type to AutoNumber
17. Right-click the field and click Primary Key
18. Create the other fields as follows:
     

    Field Name	Data Type	Caption	Field Size	Indexed
    EmployeeID (Primary Key)	AutoNumber	Employee ID
    EmployeeNumber	Text	Employee #	20	Yes (No Duplicate)
    FirstName	Text	First Name	50
    LastName	Text	Last Name	50
    Title	Text		65
    Notes	Memo

19. Save the table as Employees and close it
20. Create a form for the Employees table and design it as you see fit. Then save it as Employees. Here is an example:
     
    
21. Save the form and switch it to Form View
     
    
22. Create the following records:
     

    Employee #	First Name	Last Name	Title
    22958	Andrew	Laskin	General Manager
    70429	Lynda	Fore	Shift Manager
    27049	Harriett	Dovecot	Associate
    28405	Peggy	Thompson	Associate
    24095	Fred	Barclay	Associate
    72947	Sheryl	Shegger	Intern

23. Close the form
24. On the Ribbon, click Create and, in the Other section, click Query Design
25. In the Show Table list, click Employees, click Add, and click Close
26. In the list of fields, double-click EmployeeID and EmployeeNumber
27. In the bottom section of the query, set the third Field to Employee Name: [LastName] & ", " & [FirstName]
     
    
28. Save the query as Clerks and close it
29. Create a new table in Design View with the following fields:
     

    Field Name	Data Type	Caption	Field Size	Format	Indexed
    RoomID (Primary Key)	AutoNumber	Room ID
    RoomNumber	Text	Room #	20		Yes (No Duplicate)
    Type	Text		50
    Bed	Text		50
    Rate	Number		Double	Fixed
    Available	Yes/No
    Notes	Memo

30. Save the table as Rooms and close it
31. Create a form for the Rooms table and save it as Rooms
32. Design it as you want. Here is an example:
     
    
33. Save the form and switch it to Form View
     
    
34. Create the following records:
     

    Room #	Type	Bed	Rate	Available
    104	Bedroom	Queen	75.85	Unchecked
    105	Bedroom	King	85.75	Checked
    106	Bedroom	Queen	75.85	Checked
    107	Bedroom	King	85.75	Unchecked
    108	Bedroom	Queen	75.85	Checked
    110	Conference		450.00	Checked
    112	Studio	King	98.95	Checked
    202	Studio	King	98.95	Unchecked
    203	Studio	Queen	94.50	Checked
    204	Bedroom	Double	79.90	Checked
    205	Bedroom	Queen	75.85	Checked
    206	Bedroom	King	85.75	Unchecked

35. Close the form
36. Create a new table in Design View with the following fields:
     

    Field Name	Data Type	Caption
    OccupancyID (Primary Key)	AutoNumber	Occupancy ID
    DateOccupied	Date/Time	Date Occupied

37. Save the table as Occupancies

A Foreign Key

We have seen how to create a primary key to prepare a table for a relationship. The primary key makes it possible for such a table to make its data available. It only signals this to the other table(s) of the (same) database. If one table wants to use the data stored in another table, the first table has to be prepared for it. The first table can be called the parent table. The other table can be called the child table.

To make it possible for the child table to access the data in the parent table, the child table must have a field that would communicate with the parent table. This field represents the parent table. To act as a liaison between both tables, the field in the child table communicates with the primary key of the parent table. In order to get this communication to work, the communicating key in the child table must use the same data type as the primary key of the parent table. Since the field in the new table is only used to represent the data from the first table, it is called a foreign key:

In the same way, any table that wants to use data from a certain table must have a foreign key that can communicate with the primary key of that parent table.

To make it easy to identify a foreign key in a table, it is a good idea, not a requirement, to give to the foreign key the same name as that of the primary key. The only real requirement is that both fields use the same data type. Remember that AutoNumber is not an actual data type. Therefore, if the primary key is of type AutoNumber, the foreign key should use the Long Integer as its data type after selecting the Number in the Data Type combo box of the Design View of the table.

Using the Table Design View

There are various ways you can create and manage a relationship between two tables. Once you have a primary key in one table, to get a foreign key, you can ask Microsoft Access to create and even configure one for you. You can simply indicate where the data will come from, that is, you must indicate the table that holds the primary key, select the field that holds the actual data to use. Microsoft Access would take care of configuring everything, or almost everything, behind the scenes for you. For this approach, you use a lookup field, which can be a combo box or a list box.

As done with the simple lookup, you can create a field whose data would be selected from a list. As opposed to an unbound lookup field whose values you can predict at the time you are creating a database, a bound lookup field is one whose values are not known in advance. The values for such a field become available as the database is growing.

To create a bound lookup field, you can open the table in Design View, set the data type of the field to Lookup Wizard... This would open the Lookup Wizard. Since you are creating a field that would get its data from another table or query, you must select the first radio button and click Next. Then follow the wizard.

Practical Learning: Introducing Bound Lookup Fields

1. The Occupancies table should still be opened in Design View.
   Click the empty field under DateOccupied, type RoomID, and set its Data Type to Lookup Wizard...
   If you receive a Microsoft Office Access Security Notice, read it and click Open
2. In the first page of the wizard, accept the first radio button and click Next
    
   
3. In the list of tables of the second page of the wizard, click Table: Rooms
    
   
4. Click Next
5. In the Available fields list of the third page of the wizard, double-click RoomNumber
    
   
6. Click Next
7. In the fourth page of the wizard, click Next
8. Accept the defaults in the fifth page of the wizard and click Next
9. Click Finish
10. When asked to save the table, click Yes
11. In the bottom section of the table, notice that the Field Size is set to Long Integer.
    Set the Caption to Room #
12. Save the table and switch it to Datasheet View

Using the Table Datasheet View

You can also create a lookup combo box using the Datasheet View of a table. To do this:

• You can right-click an existing column and click Lookup Column...
• You can click the empty cell under Add New Field. Then, in the Data Type & Formatting section of the Datasheet tab of the Ribbon, click the arrow of the Data Type combo box and click Lookup Wizard...
• You can click an existing column (the column header or a cell under it). Then:
  • In the Data Type & Formatting section of the Datasheet tab of the Ribbon, click the arrow of the Data Type combo box and click Lookup Wizard...
  • In the Datasheet section of the Ribbon, click the Lookup Column button

Any of these actions would open the Lookup Wizard. Since you are creating a field that would get its data from another table or query, you must select the first radio button and click Next. Then follow the wizard.

Practical Learning: Configuring Lookup Fields

1. On the Occupancies table, click the cell under Room #
2. On the ribbon, click Datasheet and, in the Fields & Columns section, click the Lookup Column button
3. In the first page of the Lookup Wizard, make sure the first radio button is selected and click Next
4. In the second page of the wizard, click the Queries radio button
5. In the list box, make sure Queries: Clerks is selected and click Next
6. In the third page of wizard, click the select all button
    
   
7. Click Next
8. In the fourth page of the wizard, click the arrow of the first combo box and select Employee Name
    
   
9. Click Next
10. In the fifth page of the wizard, view the list and click Next
     
    
11. In the sixth page of the wizard, read the text, accept to store the value in EmployeeID, and click Next
     
    
12. Click Next
13. Accept the suggested label and click Finish
14. Double-click Field1 and type EmployeeID to rename the column and press Enter

Using the Field List

Once you have created a foreign key on a child table, you can use the Field List to add the desired column of a parent table to the child table. To do this, open the child table in Datasheet View. On the Ribbon, click Datasheet. In the Fields and Columns section, click the Add Existing Fields button . The Field List would come up. To use the field, locate and expand its table. You can then drag the desired field from the Field List to the table. The Lookup Wizard would come up. You can then follow it as we saw previously.

Practical Learning: Using the Field List

1. In the Fields and Columns section of the Ribbon, click the Add Existing Fields button
2. In the Field List, expand the Customers table.
   Click AccountNumber, drag it and drop it on the left side of Room #
    
   
3. In the first page of the Lookup Wizard, make sure AccountNumber is selected. Double-click FullName
    
   
4. Click Next
5. In the second page of the wizard, click the arrow of the first combo box and select AccountNumber
6. Click Next
7. In the third page of the wizard, view the list and click Next
8. In the fourth page of the wizard, accept the suggested label and click Finish
9. On the Ribbon, click the arrow of the View button and click Design View
10. In the top section, change the name AccountNumber to CustomerID (this is not required, just a good/bad old habit)
11. Complete the table with the following fields:
     

    Field Name	Data Type	Caption	Field Size	Format
    OccupancyID (Primary Key)
    DateOccupied
    EmployeeID		Processed By
    CustomerID		Processed For
    RoomID		Room #
    RateApplied	Number	Rate Applied	Double	Fixed
    PhoneUse	Number	Phone Use	Double	Fixed
    InternetFee	Number	Internet Fee	Double	Fixed
    Notes	Memo

     
    
12. Save the table

The Characteristics of a Lookup Field

When creating a bound lookup field, if you select only one column in the third page of the Lookup Wizard, a combo box would be created so the user can select the desired value. If the value you selected represents some type of insignificant number or character, when the user clicks the arrow of the combo box, the list of values that appear can be confusing and could lead the user to select the wrong one. Consider the following example:

When the user clicks the arrow of the combo box to select a room, this list does not specify what type of room the number represents. Any number could be for a bedroom, a studio, or a conference room. Because these numbers are vague, the user could select the wrong number and for example assign a conference room to a person who wants to rent a simple bedroom. There are various ways you can solve this type of problem. If no records have already been created and that involve that field, you can recreate the lookup field and make it display more than one column of values.

If you are creating or recreating a lookup field and you want it to display more than one column, in the third page of the wizard, you can double-click each of the desired values from the Available Fields list box:

Then continue with the wizard. When you finish with the wizard, Microsoft Access would take care of configuring the column. Sometimes you will not like the way Microsoft Access did the job. You can then modify it to your liking.

If the records exist already, you can simply modify the configuration of the lookup field. You have many options.

The configurations of the lookup field can be found in the Lookup section of the bottom part of the table in Design View. To configure a lookup field, click it in the top section of the table and, in the bottom section, click the Lookup tab. Here is an example:

To change a property, click it in the left section and change the value in the right section:

• Display Control: This allows you to specify how the field would display its value. The default is the combo box, which is suitable for most scenarios. If you want the values to appear in a list box on a form, you select the List Box option for this value. The other option is the text box
• Row Source Type: This specifies the type of list that contains the actual values. The default is Table/Query, which indicates that the values are stored in a table or a query. If the values are part of a constant list, such as one created from the second radio button of the first page of the wizard, you can set this property to Value List. The other option is Field List, which is mostly available if the list is programmatically created
• Row Source: This is the list of values. For a bound lookup field, this would be a SQL statement
• Bound Column: This is a number that specifies how many columns would connect with the primary key. The default value is 1. This should be the number of columns used in the primary key
• Column Count: This is an integer-based property that specifies the number of columns that would appear when the user clicks the arrow of the combo box on the field. If you select only one column from the Available Fields list of the second page of the wizard, this property would have a value of 1. Otherwise, if you want more columns, set this property accordingly
• Column Heads: This specifies whether the top section of the list would have a caption
• Column Widths: This specifies the width of each column of the lookup field when the list displays. The value of this property is made of sections separated by semi-colons. Each section represents the width of its corresponding column. In most cases, the first column, and that represents the foreign key, is not presented to the user and therefore should be set to 0. Each one of the other sections shows the desired width of the column and the columns can have different widths
• List Rows: This specifies the number of records that would be visible when the list appears. You should use a value between 4 and 16 (the default). A value higher than 16 is usually too long. Most programming environments (in fact as set in the Microsoft Windows operating system) use 8
• List Width: This is the total width of the list when it comes up. This should be the sum of numbers from the Column Widths property

Practical Learning: Configuring Lookup Fields

1. In the top section of the table, click EmployeeID
2. In the bottom section of the table, click the Lookup tab, right-click Row Source and click Zoom... Notice how the SQL statement that was created
    

   SELECT [Clerks].[EmployeeID], [Clerks].[EmployeeNumber], [Clerks].[Employee Name] FROM Clerks ORDER BY [Employee Name];

3. Click Cancel to close the dialog box
4. Still in the Lookup tab, make the following changes:
   Column Count: 3
   Column Widths: 0";0.75";1.25"
5. In the top section of the table, click RoomID
6. In the bottom section of the table, in the Lookup tab, click Row Source and click its ellipsis button
7. In the list of fields, click Type and press Shift
8. Click Available and release Shift
9. Drag the group of columns and drop it on the right side of RoomNumber in the bottom part of the Query Builder:
    
   
10. On the Ribbon, click the Run button to preview the list
11. Close the Query Builder
12. When asked whether you want to save, click Yes
    Notice the SQL statement that was created
     

    SELECT Rooms.RoomID, Rooms.RoomNumber, Rooms.Type, Rooms.Bed, Rooms.Rate, Rooms.Available FROM Rooms;

13. Make the following changes:
    Column Count:  6
    Column Heads:  Yes
    Column Widths: 0";0.65";0.9";0.7";0.5";0.8"
    List Rows:           8
    List Width:          3.55"
14. In the top section of the table, click CustomerID
15. In the Lookup section in the bottom part of the table, click Row Source and click its ellipsis button
16. Change the second field to Account #: AccountNumber
17. Change the third field to Customer Name: FullName
18. On the Ribbon, click the Close button
19. When asked whether you want to save, click Yes
    Notice the SQL statement that was created
     

    SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.AccountNumber AS [Account #], Customers.FullName AS [Customer Name] FROM Customers;

20. Make the following changes:
    Column Count:   3
    Column Widths: 0";0.65";1.35"
    List Rows:           8
    List Width:          2"
21. Click the General tab and set the Caption to Customer
22. Save the table and close it
23. Create a form for the Occupancies table and save it as Occupancies
24. Design it as you see fit. Here is an example:
     
    
25. Save the form, switch it to Form View, and enter the following records:
     

    Date Occupied	Processed By	Customer	Room #	Rate Applied	Phone Use	Internet Fee
    May 10, 2008	27049	294209	105	85.75	0.00	0.00
    May 11, 2008	28405	294209	105	85.75	5.35	0.00
    May 11, 2008	70429	608502	110	450.00	8.75	3.25
    May 12, 2008	70429	294209	105	85.75	0.00	0.00
    May 12, 2008	24095	208405	108	75.85	3.45	3.25
    May 13, 2008	28405	208405	108	75.85	2.65	0.00
    May 14, 2008	28405	208405	108	75.85	3.15	0.00
    May 15, 2008	27049	208405	108	75.85	1.95	0.00
    May 15, 2008	28405	284085	205	75.85	0.00	0.00
    May 16, 2008	24095	208405	108	75.85	5.50	0.00
    May 17, 2008	24095	629305	112	98.95	0.00	0.00
    May 18, 2008	70429	629305	112	98.85	0.00	0.00

26. Close the form
27. Open the Rooms form and change the records as follows:
     

    Room #	Type	Bed	Rate	Available
    104	Bedroom	Queen	79.95	Unchecked
    105	Bedroom	King	94.50	Checked
    106	Bedroom	Queen	79.95	Unchecked
    107	Bedroom	King	94.50	Checked
    108	Bedroom	Queen	79.95	Checked
    110	Conference		500.00	Unchecked
    112	Studio	King	112.95	Unchecked
    202	Studio	King	112.95	Checked
    203	Studio	Queen	104.50	Checked
    204	Bedroom	Double	115.95	Checked
    205	Bedroom	Queen	79.95	Unchecked
    206	Bedroom	King	94.50	Checked

28. Close the Rooms table
29. Re-open the Occupancies form in Form View and create the following new records:
     

    Date Occupied	Processed By	Customer	Room #	Rate Applied	Phone Use	Internet Fee
    June 16, 2008	28405	180204	105	94.50	0.00	3.25
    June 16, 2008	72947	660820	204	115.95	0.00	0.00
    June 16, 2008	28405	608208	206	94.50	0.00	3.25
    June 16, 2008	72947	204795	204	0.00	0.00	0.00
    June 16, 2008	28405	902840	203	104.50	0.00	0.00
    June 17, 2008	24095	180204	105	94.50	0.00	0.00
    June 17, 2008	24095	660820	204	115.95	0.00	0.00
    June 17, 2008	24095	608208	206	94.50	0.00	0.00
    June 17, 2008	24095	204795	204	0.00	0.00	0.00
    June 17, 2008	72947	902840	203	104.50	0.00	0.00

30. Close the form
31. Re-open the Occupancies form
32. Sort the record in ascending order from the Room # column
33. Filter the records to see only when Room 108 has been used
34. Filter the records to see only when the telephone has been used in a bedroom (the phone use different from 0)
35. Use Filter By Form to see only the transactions performed by employee number 28405
36. Close the Occupancies form

MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Access 2007 Topics  

S2	Define and print table relationships
S3	Add, set, change, or remove primary keys

 

Exercises  

Yugo National Bank

1. Create a blank database named Yugo National Bank2
2. Configure it to display overlapping windows

Watts A Loan

1. Create a blank database named Watts A Loan2
2. Configure it to display overlapping windows

World Statistics

• Create a blank database named World Statistics2

US Senate

1. Create a new blank database and name it US Senate2
2. Do some research on the Internet or use a book that can help you. Make a list of the names of states in the United States. You should get the name of a state and its abbreviation
3. Start a new table in the Design View and create the following fields:
    

   Field Name	Data Type	Field Size	Caption
   StateID	AutoNumber		State ID
   StateAbbreviation	Text	50	State Abbreviation
   StateName	Text	50	State Name
   WebSite	Text	100	Web Site
   Capital	Text	50
   Governor	Text	50

4. Save the table as States
5. Start a new table in the Design View and create the following fields:
    

   Field Name	Data Type	Field Size	Caption
   PartyID	AutoNumber		Party ID
   PartyName	Text	50	Party Name

6. Save the table as Political Parties
7. Start a new table in the Design View and create the following fields:
    

   Field Name	Data Type	Field Size	Caption
   SenatorID	AutoNumber		Senator ID
   SenatorName	Text	50	Senator Name
   SeatingStatus	Text	50	Seating Status
   Gender	Text	30
   StateID	Number	Long Integer
   Race	Text	40
   Religion	Text	50
   YearElected	Number	Integer	Year Elected
   PartyID	Number	Long Integer
   DCAddress	Text	255	DC Address
   DCOfficePhoneNumber	Text	40	Office Phone #
   WebSite	Hyperlink		Web Site
   LocalAddress1	Text		Local Address 1
   LocalAddress2	Text		Local Address 2
   LocalAddress3	Text		Local Address 3
   LocalAddress4	Text		Local Address 4
   Pictures	Attachment
   Biography	Memo

8. Save the table as Senators
9. Use the Lookup Wizard on the SeatingStatus column to create a list of the status. The options will be Active, Retired, Removed, and Deceased
10. Use the Lookup Wizard on the Gender column to create a list of the genders. The options will be Male, Female, and Unknown. Set the Default Value to "Unknown"
11. Use the Lookup Wizard on the State to link the list of states from the States table using the state abbreviation column
12. Use the Lookup Wizard on the Race column to create a list of the races. The options will be Black, White, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, Other
13. Use the Lookup Wizard on the Religion to create a list of the religions. The options will be Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Baptist, Presbyterian, Atheist, Other
14. Use the Lookup Wizard on the PartyID to create a link of to the Political Parties table using the Party Name column
15. Save and close the table
16. Create a form for the Senators table. Save the form as Senator
17. Go to http://www.senate.gov
18. Get the information about each senator and populate the Senators form with that information