Tables with Plus/Minus signs in Northwind

[Jay]

The tables in the Northwind database when opened have the plus/minus signs
next to each record for drilling down to related information. What kind of a
table is this called? How can I setup my database to have the same type of
functionality that the Northwind tables do?

Should I export a query result to a pivot table , or , have data in the
table design/set up like the Northwind Mdb to get the best results???
Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks

 

[Brian Smith]

The tables in the Northwind database when opened have the plus/minus signs
next to each record for drilling down to related information. What kind of
a
table is this called? How can I setup my database to have the same type of
functionality that the Northwind tables do?

Should I export a query result to a pivot table , or , have data in the
table design/set up like the Northwind Mdb to get the best results???
Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks

Jay, have you setup relationships between your tables? If you do so you
should see what you want.

Brian

 

[John W. Vinson]

The tables in the Northwind database when opened have the plus/minus signs
next to each record for drilling down to related information. What kind of a
table is this called? How can I setup my database to have the same type of
functionality that the Northwind tables do?

Well....

Don't.

These are called "Subdatasheets". If you create a Relationship between two
tables and open the "one" side table of the relationship, by default you'll
see the + in the table datasheet; clicking on it will display the related
records in the "many" side table.

This may be ok for a very quick and dirty display of your data - but it's very
dirty and can really wreck performance, especially in large databases. Table
datasheets have VERY limited capabilities, and are best reserved for debugging
and design work.

If you want to see data from related tables, it's really worth the modest
effort of creating a Form with Subforms. This lets you lay the data out
however is most pleasing and logical, keeps the data in synch, lets you use
tools like Combo Boxes and Listboxes to enter the data in a user-friendly way,
and so on.


John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Jay]

Thank you both very much for your replies. I appreciate it. I thought the
relationships may work to do that but was not sure. I am using SQL server
tables and do have relationships set up but it does not transfer to the
Access tables with the +/-. This does not sound like it would be worth while
even if it did. I do have many forms, subforms, list boxes etc to look at
data, I am contracting and my manager saw and liked the Northwind database
functionality. I do not think she know how weak an option that is. I do think
I may try to setup a pivot table of information because she does like that in
Excel and from what I have researched looks pretty cool. It is for data drill
down/grouping type functionality only and not input. We receive that data in
large txt files from our vendors and it really is slicing and dicing. Thanks
again.

 

[John W. Vinson]

Thank you both very much for your replies. I appreciate it. I thought the
relationships may work to do that but was not sure. I am using SQL server
tables and do have relationships set up but it does not transfer to the
Access tables with the +/-. This does not sound like it would be worth while
even if it did. I do have many forms, subforms, list boxes etc to look at
data, I am contracting and my manager saw and liked the Northwind database
functionality. I do not think she know how weak an option that is. I do think
I may try to setup a pivot table of information because she does like that in
Excel and from what I have researched looks pretty cool. It is for data drill
down/grouping type functionality only and not input. We receive that data in
large txt files from our vendors and it really is slicing and dicing. Thanks
again.

If you can work within its limitations, and want the "ad hoc" related-data
view, I believe that you can get the Subdatasheet functionality even for SQL
tables. You may need to create relationships in the Access frontend *as well
as* the relationships in the SQL Server.

John W. Vinson [MVP]