How to store multiple entries

[Gallowgate]

Hi,

This is a really simple one for you guys.

I am trying to write a database to keep track of the documents sent and received on a particular project. My problem is when a document is sent to one person and copied to many. How do I store this data, i.e. one document entry in the "incoming documents" table has many values in the "copied to" field ?

Thanks....sorry, but access is definitely not my strong point !

Martin

 

[Golom]

Depends on what use you intend to make of the "copied to" information. If you are just displaying it as in

Copied To: Bill, Fred, Mary, Joan

Then you can probably get away with stacking comma-separated values in the "Copied To:" field.
Note: If you elect this route you need to be certain that the rules won't change. It's a non-trivial task to change to a table based approach once you've started with this un-normalized field approach.

If you want to be able to answer questions like "Which documents has Bill received?" then you need a "CopiedTo" table with a foreign key back to the "Incoming Documents" table so that you can individually record who received a copy of each document.