Database Project - Microsoft Access

Hallo everyone, welcome to my post about the Access database project. Microsoft Access is a useful tool to analyze data in an efficient way and it provides the possibility for creating forms and reports that make the gathering and reporting of information very convenient. During the project me and all the other students learned basically the four main functions of Microsoft Access.

First of all we had to create a table, where we learned how to import data into access and format it appropriately. This is already an important step as only correctly imported data can provide correct information. “Garbage in, garbage out”!

The second task was to create a query. Queries help to for example combine information from multiple tables into one database. Moreover, they make it possible to create a database with only certain information. This is helpful for databases that have a lot of information irrelevant for the task. The query allows putting out only the information needed. 

The third activity was to create a form. A form is a pre-designed sheet in Access, which allows entering information into the database. The advantage of a form is that restrictions can be set, so that the information is correctly entered into the database.

Our last activity was to create a report. The advantage of this is, that you can determine which information and in what manner this information is presented in the report. It allows grouping data and sorting as well as several design issues that you would like to have in your report. Altogether I think this project was very useful. I had never worked with Access before and I definitely think I will need it in my future career as a business student as it makes working with data more structured.

There are many ways to enhance the functionality of the database at hand. I will focus on storage capacity and security. One problem of Microsoft Access is that it does only work very well until a certain amount of data. After this the program gets slow, and information may be processed in a wrong way. As long as the gym, where we get the data from, is local this will probably not become an issue. However if they expand nationwide, data will grow to a huge amount. Then another issue of Microsoft Access becomes important, its security. Although the program offers some kind of protection through passwords, the company should then rethink if this would be enough. One solution that would solve both problems and enhance the functionality of the database through increased speed and security would be to use an SQL Server as the database engine and Microsoft Access as the front-end. There are many companies who offer this as a business solution.

Source (Images):

Screenshots from my own PC (database)