junction table question

J

Jessica

Hello All,

I just wanted to ask this question to make sure I am doing it right
before I waste all my time filling in records then finding out that I
was doing it wrong or that there was an easier way. I have two tables
one called products and one called forms. A product can have more than
one form and one form can belong to more than one product so I made a
junction table and related the three. If there are 500 different
products and 100 different forms but on average each product uses 20
different forms does that mean I have to enter 10000 records into my
junction table. I hope this is not the case. Please let me know if there
is an easier way or maybe I am taking the wrong approach.


TIA,
Jess
 
J

John Vinson

Hello All,

I just wanted to ask this question to make sure I am doing it right
before I waste all my time filling in records then finding out that I
was doing it wrong or that there was an easier way. I have two tables
one called products and one called forms. A product can have more than
one form and one form can belong to more than one product so I made a
junction table and related the three. If there are 500 different
products and 100 different forms but on average each product uses 20
different forms does that mean I have to enter 10000 records into my
junction table. I hope this is not the case. Please let me know if there
is an easier way or maybe I am taking the wrong approach.


TIA,
Jess
Click to expand...

Jess, you are taking exactly the correct approach.

In the real world you have 10000 pieces of information - all of the
form "this product and this form are related to one another".

You have, in the real world, 10000 relationships.
You should therefore have, in your database, 10000 records recording
those relationships.

There may well be some "shortcuts" to *ENTER* this information,
particularly if the knowledge exists somewhere in some computer
readable form (such as an Excel spreadsheet or a text file) - but by
hook, crook, or manual entry using a well designed Form and Subform,
you must enter those 10000 records.

If you're trying to fill in the junction table in table datasheet view
by manually looking up ID numbers - STOP; that's not using the power
of Access!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
J

Jessica

Thank you John

John said:
Jess, you are taking exactly the correct approach.

In the real world you have 10000 pieces of information - all of the
form "this product and this form are related to one another".

You have, in the real world, 10000 relationships.
You should therefore have, in your database, 10000 records recording
those relationships.

There may well be some "shortcuts" to *ENTER* this information,
particularly if the knowledge exists somewhere in some computer
readable form (such as an Excel spreadsheet or a text file) - but by
hook, crook, or manual entry using a well designed Form and Subform,
you must enter those 10000 records.

If you're trying to fill in the junction table in table datasheet view
by manually looking up ID numbers - STOP; that's not using the power
of Access!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Click to expand...
 
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