Friday, September 13, 2013

Friday, September 13, 2013
Dear Class:



What is a database?

Watch the Tutorial on Access. (approx. 24 minutes) The teacher will go to the site and play "Access 2010/2013", Beginner, "Introduction" 2013 and "Database Terminology" and perhaps "Planning Your Database". You will be taking notes in a google doc entitled "Database Notes" that will then be put into your shared folder so that I can see it.

Why use a database—information about customers, information about inventories, any type of information a business would need. You can design, manipulate, sort, and print.

Who has a database—schools, libraries, government, stores, banks, business on inventory and employees

Internet Search:
Who won the Heisman trophy 2 years in a row?? (1974 1975 Archie Griffen
Who Was David Douglas named after??
Who are some notable alumni from David Douglas??

Record?

Field?
Requirements: contain a unique name, describe the field, <= 64 characters, cannot begin with a space, can’t use . , ! [ ]

Fields have data types—text, number, currency, date/time, yes/no, OLE Object (picture), hyperlink (address), lookup wizard (giving options)

Field size—usually default works but you can assign different sizes
Who has a long name that always gets cut off???

Last class I had you go to to a spreadsheet, however, because a few of the students made changes that made it apparent that some could not take this task seriously, you will have to open a google spreadsheet and enter in each category in the first row of cells and then answer the questions below. This means more work and less time for GameMaker at the end of the semester.

Icebreaker—creating a database about our class
What do we want to find out about each other:

First Name
Last Name
Age
Smart? (yes/no)
How much do you have?
Favorite Food
Favorite Color
Gender
Eye Color
Birth Month
Job
Database Exp
Programming Exp
Grade
Hobbies
Siblings
Middle School
Sports


Enter the information onto the spreadsheet that has been shared.

Let’s put our class in a database. . .

Create a database
Different programs: MS ACCESS, Oracle, Dbase
We use ACCESS
Determine fields and data types
Enter your own data on the first line and SAVE it.


Open WORD document and create a “Database Notes” file
Vocabulary: database, field, record, data types

Sites that can help: Access 2003 tutorial

Access 2003