Access primary key 1

[fluidpowerchicky]

I need a suggestion on the best primary key to use. Here is the situation:

I work for a company that has a membership base and a certification base. People can be mixed from either database. Members can be certified but certified people don't have to be members. The issue is that we are converting to Access. What would be the best primary key to be used if SS# are not required? We can't use a member ID b/c some people are not members. Is the Autonumber the best answer? And if that is the case, how do you relate autonumbers? (ex: One table the autonumber is the primary key and would the foreign key just be a number field?)

 

[ponderworks]

Hi,

You don't indicate whether the relationship between members and certifications is 1-1. Can a member or non-member have more than one certification (ie. PMP, Prince2, MSPM, etc)? Or are we just talking PMP? What kind of identifier to you provide a member? Could the non-member be given an autonumber with an indicator showing them as non-member? There are a lot of ways to accomplish this. Much depends on the way the data will be used later and the relationship between the "kinds" of members.

 

[fluidpowerchicky]

Thanks for the response Ponderworks. The certified members or non-members can have more than 1 certification. So it should be a one-to-many. The members have a member id. The certified members are only identified by their names and addresses. SS #'s are not required, so I can't even use that. The issue is the current databases require duplicate information. If the member is certified then we must go in and enter the same information into both databases. We would like one database showing all information for members, whether certified or not, and all certified whether members or no.
Thanks again, I am a beginner and given this opportunity, want to prove myself. Thanks.