40 Fun Facts About Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access has only ever been released for which operating system, unlike Excel and PowerPoint?

Windows is the only home Access has ever had: its forms and reports do not run anywhere else, so Office for Mac has never included it.

Access 2007 introduced which file extension for its databases, replacing the older .mdb format?

.accdb arrived with Access 2007 and brought new abilities, including fields that hold several values at once and links to SharePoint lists.

In an Access table, which field must hold a unique value for every record, such as a customer number?

Primary key is the name for that field, and Access marks it with a small key icon in Design view; a table can have only one.

Which Access data type fills in a unique value by itself each time a new record is saved?

AutoNumber fields fill themselves in when a record is first saved, which is why Access suggests one whenever a table has no obvious unique field.

In an Access query, which wildcard character stands in for any number of unknown characters?

Asterisk is the catch-all wildcard: the criterion wh* finds what, white and why, while a question mark stands for just one character.

Which Access command shrinks a bloated database file by clearing out unused space?

Compact and Repair makes the file smaller by removing unused space rather than compressing data, and it can also mend a database that has become damaged.

In which Access view can you add a new field simply by typing data into an empty column?

Datasheet view shows a table as a grid of rows and columns, and Access guesses the data type from what you type, choosing a text type when nothing else fits.

Which programming language, shared with Excel and PowerPoint, has been built into Access since Access 95?

VBA, short for Visual Basic for Applications, replaced the earlier Access Basic language when Access joined the Office 95 suite.

Holding down which key while opening an Access database bypasses its startup options?

Shift, held while the file opens, skips the startup form and any custom ribbon, which lets a developer back into a database that has been locked down.

Which panel on the left of the Access window lists a database's tables, queries, forms and reports?

Navigation Pane is the name of that panel, and clicking its title bar lets you regroup the list, for instance by object type or by the table each object uses.

Which Access field property forces every phone number into one pattern, with set digits and hyphens?

Input Mask is the property, and its codes are strict: a 0 demands a digit while a 9 makes the digit optional, so an area code can be left out.

Which Access action query adds rows taken from one table to another table that already exists?

Append queries add rows to a table that already exists, whereas a make-table query builds a brand-new one, and neither can be undone once it has run.

What name does Access give the field it adds automatically when a new blank table first opens?

ID is the default name, and Access sets that field to number itself so that every new row gets a value no other row shares.

On an Access form, which control hides its list of choices until you click a drop-down arrow?

Combo box controls keep the list hidden until the arrow is clicked, and unlike a list box they also accept a typed value that is not among the choices.

Which Access data type, added in 2007, can hold several files such as photos in a single field?

Attachment fields can each hold many files per row, and they store them more efficiently than the older OLE Object type ever did.

Which fictional company gives its name to the sample database that shipped with Access 2.0 in 1994?

Northwind Traders, a made-up small business with customers, orders and suppliers, dates from the earliest versions of Access and was later reused as a sample database for SQL Server.

In Access database design, what is the process of dividing data into tables so nothing is stored twice?

Normalization is the term, and it follows a ladder of rules called normal forms; most Access designs only need to satisfy the first three of the five.

In an Access query's Criteria row, which characters around a question make the query prompt for a value?

Square brackets turn the text inside them into a prompt, so typing [For what city?] makes Access ask that question every time the query runs.

Which criterion in an Access query finds the records where a field has been left empty?

Is Null picks out rows where the field holds no value at all, and its opposite, Is Not Null, returns only the rows that do hold one.

In an Access report, which section prints once for every row of the underlying data?

Detail is the section repeated for each row, forming the main body of the report, while a page header repeats only at the top of each sheet.

A Short Text field in Access, the type used for names and titles, can hold at most how many characters?

255 characters is the ceiling, so anything longer belongs in a Long Text field, which was built for whole sentences and paragraphs.

Since Access 2013, the Long Text data type has replaced which older name for the same kind of field?

Memo was the old name, and the renamed type still shows only its first 64,000 characters in a form control even though it can store far more.

A many-to-many relationship in Access needs a third table between the two, called which kind of table?

Junction tables hold the identifying field from each side, turning one many-to-many link into two one-to-many links, as an order-lines table does for orders and products.

Which Access relationship setting prevents orphan records, such as an order with no matching customer?

Referential integrity, once enforced, makes Access refuse any edit or deletion that would leave a row pointing at a parent that is gone.

In the Access Relationships window, which symbol marks the many side of an enforced one-to-many link?

The infinity sign sits over one end of the line and the number 1 over the other, but only when the link is enforced; an unenforced one is a plain thin line.

Which function key shows or hides the panel listing every table, query and form in an Access database?

F11 toggles that panel, although it counts as one of the special keys that a database's designer is able to switch off.

What must an Access macro be named so that it runs by itself every time the database opens?

AutoExec is the magic name: rename any finished macro to it and Access will run that macro by itself the next time the database is opened.

Which Access query type groups totals by two sets of headings, one down the side and one along the top?

Crosstab queries lay results out as a grid, for instance products down the side and months along the top, which makes them far easier to scan than a long list.

In the SQL behind an Access query, which punctuation mark ends every SELECT statement?

Semicolon is the closing mark, and Access lets it sit either at the end of the last clause or alone on a final line of the statement.

Which built-in Access tool moves the tables into a separate back-end file for sharing on a network?

Database Splitter leaves the forms, queries and reports in a front-end file, and each user then gets a copy of that file while everyone shares the same tables.

Which free edition of Access can open and use a finished database but cannot redesign it?

Runtime editions let people work with forms, reports and queries without buying Access, which allows a developer to hand one database to any number of users.

During development in the early 1990s, Microsoft Access was known inside the company by which code name?

Cirrus was the working title until beta copies went to developers in July 1992, when Microsoft revived the Access name from an abandoned communications program.

Microsoft announced the first version of Access in November 1992 at which big computer trade show?

Comdex, the huge autumn show in Las Vegas, was where Access 1.0 went on sale straight away rather than being promised for some later date.

Which software company sold Paradox, a leading desktop database before Access arrived in 1992?

Borland was one of the firms that dominated the market, thanks to Paradox, but rivals from the MS-DOS era lost ground fast once Access offered a database designed for a graphical desktop.

Access stores No in a Yes/No field as zero, but which number does it store for Yes?

-1 is the value Access stores for Yes, whereas SQL Server permits only 0 and 1, so the field has to be converted when a database moves there.

For Jet, the database layer that long powered Microsoft Access, what do the letters JET stand for?

Joint Engine Technology gave the name, and the same component also sat beneath Visual Basic, which used it as a built-in database layer of its own.

In the Leszynski naming convention used by Access developers, which three-letter tag starts a table name?

tbl goes in front of every table name and qry in front of every query, so anyone reading the code can tell at a glance what kind of object it is.

Which name must an Access macro group carry so that a custom shortcut like Ctrl+P triggers one of its actions?

AutoKeys is the reserved name, and tying actions to key presses is one of the few jobs Access can only do with a macro rather than with code.

Which rival database did Microsoft buy in 1992, folding its Rushmore query speed-ups into Access?

FoxPro stayed in development alongside Access after the purchase, despite rumours that it would replace the unfinished Microsoft database outright.

In an Access database, which object stores procedures written in code instead of a list of ready-made actions?

Module objects hold declarations and procedures together as one unit, and the standard kind is not tied to any single form or report.