Multivalued fields in Access 2010 4

[Lilliabeth]

Using Access 2010. I am not using Multivalued fields (or any Lookup fields) and I don't want to use them. I want to see the normalization. But if I'm a dinosaur I want to know it... Are people who design in Access professionally using them? MVPs? Will there come a day when only old people avoid them? If your customer uses SharePoint, are you more likely to use them?

--Lilliabeth

 

[MajP]

Yeah, they make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. But they are needed for sharepoint compatibility. But, like you said, the good news is they are normal. The bad news the normalization happens behind the scenes. I do not think anyone uses them. I have not scene a single thread in Tek-tips since 2007 came out, either from novice or advanced users. The only threads have been me telling users if they wanted that functionality it does exist in 2007.

 

[PHV]

using Multivalued fields
IMHO, only for SharePoint compatibility ...

 

[dhookom]

I was sitting in the room in Redmond when the Access MVPs were first introduced to multivalued fields. To put it mildly, the new functionality/feature was not embraced.

I have never used them and agree with points made by MajP and PH.

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP

 

[traingamer]

Multivalued fields were the norm in Pick / Prime Information back in the day and are still used in Mumps and other related databases.

Even so, I do not foresee using them myself in Access anytime soon.

Keep in mind that you will not necessarily be losing normalization if you use multivalues. Your tables could still be conceptually normalized, but not physically. I'm splitting hairs here - it's all in how you perceive it.

A quick example: all order items (multivalues) could be included in a single read of an order record (row). There are certainly good ways and bad ways to use them, just as there there are good and bad designs now.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard

 

[traingamer]

Now that I've done some reading on Access multivalues, I'm sure I'd never use them - they're not quite the same as my experience in other databases.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard

 

[Lilliabeth]

Thanks, all. I feel better.

--Lilliabeth