Items table help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob H
  • Start date Start date
R

Rob H

I have a photography business that I am setting up a database for tracking
sales by customer, item, demographics etc. I'd like some advise on the items
table, I have over a hundred photographs that I currently offer for sale and
each photograph is offered in various sizes as well as being a print only,
matted or matted and framed. This is going to make the items table quite
extensive.
This is an example of what I have right now:

Item Size Type
Moulton Barn 12x24 Print
Moulton Barn 12x24 Matted
Moulton Barn 12x24 Framed
Moulton barn 16x31 Print
Moulton Barn 16x31 Matted
Moulton Barn 16x31 Framed
Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Print
Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Matted
Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Framed

and so on;

So, each "Item" can have 6-12 "options" (ie: size, print or size, framed
etc) x 100 photographs the list will be quite long.

What's happening is; when I sort by Item>Ascending, the photos are listed
alphabetically but the size and type become scrambled as such;

Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Framed
Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Print
Dewy Dragonfly 11x14 Matted
Moulton Barn 12x24 Print
Moulton Barn 16x31 Matted

I want the list to maintain the order of Item alphabetically, then Item
size and finally Item Type in the order of Print, Matted or Framed. The
obvious is to re-create the Items table and enter the items in the order I
need but once done and I later add a new image I'm back to square one.

Ideas?

Thank You
 
If I understand correctly you want to sort by size. The issue might be that
you aren't storing numeric values. Have you considered using two numeric
fields ItemHeight and ItemWidth? You could then sort by either field, both,
or the product (square inches). This would remove the problem of 8x10
sorting after 10x14.
 
Well, yes and no. I really want to sort by Item name first(Dewy Dragonfly)
then by Size(8x10, 11x14, etc), and then further sort by the Type(Print 1st,
matted 2nd, and framed 3rd). To get this:

Maybe this is not as big of an issue as I envision, but when looking up an
item it would be much easier if the items were listed in this fashion.

I hope this clarifies my issue a bit.
 
You need Item, Size and Type tables:
TblType
TypeID
Type

TblSize
SizeID
Size (text)
SortOrder (1 to whatever)

TblItem
ItemID
Item

Then you need a table that lists the type and size of each item....

TblItemSizeType
ItemSizeTypeID
ItemID
SizeID
TypeID

To get the sort you want, you need a query that includes all the above
tables. Include the fields in your query:
Item from TblItem
Size from TblSize
SortOrder from TblSize
Type From TblType

In the query set ....
sort for Item as Accending;
sort for SortOrder Ascending
sort for Type Descending

If you need help with your database, I can help you get up and running
quickly. I provide help with Access, Excel and Word applications for a small
fee. Contact me if you want my help.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)
 
Well, yes and no.  I really want to sort by Item name first(Dewy Dragonfly)
then by Size(8x10, 11x14, etc), and then further sort by the Type(Print 1st,
matted 2nd, and framed 3rd).  To get this:

Maybe this is not as big of an issue as I envision, but when looking up an
item it would be much easier if the items were listed in this fashion.

I hope this clarifies my issue a bit.
Click to expand...
Oh, you're an Excel guy. Excel <> Access. Write a query, and run it
when you want your data sorted in a particular way. <include JV's
"tables are unsorted buckets of data" speech here>
 
You are absolutely correct! i have much more experience with Excel, I'm just
trying to learn Access as I go about creating this database.

you mentioned "JV's", probably something I'm aware of but please elaborate.

Thanks for the help
 
JV is MVP John Vinson. He (and other wise posters) describe records as if
they were marbles in a bag/bucket, in the back of a pickup truck, going down
a bumpy road, making sharp turns ;-)

There is no order to them until you create a query or SQL statement with an
ORDER BY clause. If you hang out here more with questions, you are bound to
run into John Vinson.
 
Steve said:
If you need help with your database, I can help you get up and running
quickly. I provide help with Access, Excel and Word applications for a
small fee. Contact me if you want my help.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...





Stevie is our own personal pet troll who is the only one who does not
understand the concept of FREE peer to peer support!
He offers questionable results at unreasonable prices.

These newsgroups are provided by Microsoft for FREE peer to peer support.
There are many highly qualified individuals who gladly help for free. Stevie
is not one of them, but he is the only one who just does not get the idea of
"FREE" support. He offers questionable results at unreasonable prices. If he
was any good, the "thousands" of people he claims to have helped would be
flooding him with work, but there appears to be a continuous drought and he
needs to constantly grovel for work.

Please do not feed the trolls.

John... Visio MVP
 
There is no order to them until you create a query or SQL statement with an
ORDER BY clause. If you hang out here more with questions, you are bound to
run into John Vinson.
Click to expand...

<g> Once in a while...
 
Get Lost

Steve said:
You need Item, Size and Type tables:
TblType
TypeID
Type

TblSize
SizeID
Size (text)
SortOrder (1 to whatever)

TblItem
ItemID
Item

Then you need a table that lists the type and size of each item....

TblItemSizeType
ItemSizeTypeID
ItemID
SizeID
TypeID

To get the sort you want, you need a query that includes all the above
tables. Include the fields in your query:
Item from TblItem
Size from TblSize
SortOrder from TblSize
Type From TblType

In the query set ....
sort for Item as Accending;
sort for SortOrder Ascending
sort for Type Descending

If you need help with your database, I can help you get up and running
quickly. I provide help with Access, Excel and Word applications for a small
fee. Contact me if you want my help.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)




.
Click to expand...
 
Oh, you're an Excel guy. Excel <> Access. Write a query, and run it
when you want your data sorted in a particular way. <include JV's
"tables are unsorted buckets of data"

This worked perfectly for the original data in the Items list, however, when
I enter new items and do a Refresh both the Item and Type update correctly
but the Size is not working. If I choose Ascending in the layout view the
old records show correctly but the new records show in reverse(descending).
If I reverse the sorting order for size then just the opposite happens...
 
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