question about access...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff W. Ross
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff W. Ross

I currently have an access database that tracks my music collection. this
includes cd/mp3/vinyl/tape/md. my problem is that I would like to be able
to have a list of tracks that is searchable. therefore I need to have a way
to have discrete fields for each track name, but, the number of fields that
this will require per record in my table will obviously vary. can anyone
tell me how to set this up? I just finished an access class at my college
but my instructor knew less than me...which is pretty bad. any help would
be appreciated.

Jeff W. Ross
 
Jeff,

The solution is to have multiple tables with
relationships which you define. A table for
say "Artists", then "Album", and them "Tracks"
or "Songs", or something like it.

Each table must have fields that associate with the other
tables such "ArtistID", "AlbumID", and "TrackID". With
this schema, you can add unlimited (up to DB limitations)
artists, albums, and tracks.

Then you would create a Form or Query to extract the
information you are looking for.

A full description is beyond what can be written here,
but I suggest you look at some of the sample databases or
get yourself a book on the topic.
 
There is no way to have a variable field size dependent on
the data that is put into it. I would therefore suggest
that you specify the field size to be sufficiently big to
deal with your track names. You can specify the field to
be either a text data type which has a maximum size of 255
characters or you could use a memo data type which allows
up to 64,000 characters.

Hope this helps.
 
I did a similar music library in Access 4 or 5 years ago. One thing I did
that saved lots of typing was to use a combobox with a NotInLIst event for
the entry of the song titles. Once you get the first hundred song titles in
you'd be surprised how many times the same title comes up - from Western
through classical.

hth
 
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