Create a table relationship in Access 2007

Relational databases are called "relational" databases, and the truth is that they can trace the relationships between data elements in a database. However, many database users do not know how to take advantage of this function of a relational database, simply using Access as an advanced spreadsheet. In this article, we'll discuss how to create a relationship for two tables in an Access database.

First step: Start

First, we're going to start access and open the database that holds the new table. In this example, we will use a simple database to track the running activity. The database contains two tables: A table routes (a tracking record for the daily run path) and a table runs (a separate record for each running activity). The table routes contains "id", "short_name", "description" and "Distance" five fields, while table runs includes "id", "route", "Run_date", "Time", "Run_time" and "comments" six fields.

Step two: Start the relational tool

Next, we'll open the relational tools for access. Tap the Database Tools tab of the Access interface, and click the "Relationships" button from the dropdown option, as shown in Figure two.

Step three: Add the relational table

If this is the first time a table relationship is created in the current database, the Show Table dialog box appears, as shown in Figure three. The dialog box has three tabs that display all the tables and queries in the current database, the first two tables and queries used to view the tables and the query separately, and the both tab to display both the table and the query. Select the tables you want to include in this relationship (you can use the control key to select more than one table at a time), and then click the Add button. Click the Close button to continue after adding the last table.