Building Microsoft Access Applications

Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out

Databases

Microsoft Access 2003 Forms, Reports, and Queries (Business Solutions)

Format: Paperback
Author: Paul McFedries
ReleaseDate: 18 August, 2004
Publisher: Que
Rating:

Very practical and useful
It is very practical and useful. Great book. I have managed to do several things following the book as a model. I understood relational databases, but needed some ideas and how-to's for making an application spiffy. I wasn't sure the queries would be useful, but low and behold had to do some queries in another database and they were very useful (most of my databases are not number based). I highly recommend it as a practical guide to doing some cool things!.

learn SQL
There are sections of the book about fairly simple UI controls and their usages. McFedries has essentially produced a first course on SQL, using Microsoft Access as the user interface into a relational database. Like how to change fonts or colours. Mundane stuff.

But the book goes much deeper. It shows how Access can teach you much about many relational database topics. Table relationships, referential integrity, multiple table queries, table joins and so on. En route, the author gently introduces examples of SQL queries. The full syntax of which is complex enough to deter many new users. But by seeing the queries used in many simple contexts should help your retention.

So the book serves two purposes. The first is to learn Access. The second is to learn SQL and relational databases, using Access just as a means to an end.