Table Tips

Do not use lists in the fields of the tables, you will be stuck with them along the way. Create List Boxes or Combo Boxes in forms and reports when you need them.

A double Primary Key means that you can have two records "Leclerc" but not two records "Pierre"/"Leclerc". Remember though that to be able to enter data through a query linked to such a table, both fields will have to be included in the query.

A numerical field is a field comprising numbers on which you will want to do mathematical operations. So, a telephone number, a postal code or an invoice number are text fields.

You can put numbers in both numerical and text fields of an Access table but the sorting results will be different:
In numerical fields: 1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5 ,6.......10.....20....30
In text fields: 1, 10, 11, 12....,2, 20, 21....3, 30, 31

Linking tables can present some limits. If you have a query within another query and both need to look at a linked table at the same time, ODBC cannot handle it. Sometimes, imported table are the solution especially in a datamart that is not used to enter data in the main database but to generate reports.