Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

129

CHAPTER

Selecting Data with

Queries

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding what queries are

and what they can do for you

Creating queries

Specifying the fields in a query

Displaying a query’s results

Adding and removing fields

from a query’s design

Sorting a query’s results

Filtering records returned by a

query

Printing records returned by a

query

Saving a query

Including more than one table

in a query

Adding, deleting, and moving

tables in a query

Joining tables in a query’s

design

Understanding the options for

joining tables in a query

Q

ueries are an essential part of any database application. Queries are
the tools that enable you and your users to extract data from multi-
ple tables, combine it in useful ways, and present it to the user as a
datasheet, on a form, or as a printed report.

You may have heard the old cliché, “Queries convert data to information.”
To a certain extent, this statement is true — that’s why it’s a cliché. The data
contained within tables is not particularly useful because, for the most part,
the data in tables appears in no particular order. Also, in a properly normal-
ized database, important information is spread out among a number of dif-
ferent tables. Queries are what draw these various data sources together and
present the combined information in such a way that users can actually work
with the data.

In this chapter, you learn how to create and enhance queries. Using the Sales
(tblSales), Customers (tblCustomers), Contacts (tblContacts),
Sales Line Items (tblSalesLineItems), Categories (tblCategories),
and Products (tblProducts) tables, you create several types of queries for
the Collectible Mini Cars database.

On the CD-ROM
This chapter uses the Chapter04.accdb database. If you haven’t already
copied it onto your machine from the CD, you should do so now.

The data returned by Access queries is often used to populate forms and
reports. As you read this chapter, keep in mind that the transformations and
conversions imposed on data returned by a query apply whether the data is
viewed in a datasheet, in a form, or in a report. One of the underlying princi-
ples of queries is that the work performed by a query is independent of how