Normalization Help

[BradB]

Currently, I've inherited the job converting an excel worksheet to an Access database. The excel sheet has a big row with names, race, ethnicity, etc..., and 25 Yes/No's fields. I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle all the Yes/No fields.

Should I just import everything as is, and just have one table with all the information and 25 yes/no fields?

 

[LittleSmudge]

That depends.

First - forget the Yes/No fields
Do the REST of the fields all belong in one table or should they be Normalised ?

If yes the you need to decide which of the 25 belong in each of the normalised tables

Then think carefully about mutuality between the Yes/No fields
All they ALL truely independent ? Or does a Yes in one always mean a No in the other ?
Are any sets of Yes/No fields inter-related Ie. Can only one of a specific group be Yes in any one record.
If this is the case it should be an integer field which can get bound to an option group on a form.

Chew that lot over and see how you get on.


'ope-that-'elps.




G LS
accessaceNOJUNK@valleyalley.co.uk
Remove the NOJUNK to use.

 

[BradB]

>>Do the REST of the fields all belong in one table or should they be Normalised ?

Yes, I'm normalizing them into their own specfic tables. Before, everything was just in one row in an excel sheet. Now, I've broken the students information into separate tables such as Student, School, Staff, etc...

>>All they ALL truely independent ?

Not all Yes/NO are independent. Some of the Yes/No fields have only serve the purpose.

For example,
"Are they on Probabtion?" - Yes/No
"Do they have a special curriculum?"

Other Yes/No fields DO have specific categories such as:
What agencies do they get services from? (Check all that apply)
SRS
JD
SSE
DECCA
Etc...

 

[GingerR]

the yes/no re: which agencies to they get services from:

you will want a table ie. tblAgencies
fields: AgencyID [autonumber, key], AgencyTitle, etc (unique agency listing)

then a third table ie. tblStudentAgencies
fields: StudentID (from your student main table) and AgencyID (from above table) (make combo of both ID's be the primary key of this table)

this makes a many-to-many relationship between students and agencies (each student may belong to many agencies, and each agency may have many students).

when you do your data entry in the future, you'd make a combo (drop-down) box based on the tblAgency, in a subform based on the table tblStudentAgencies....