Microsoft Access (MS) - Quick Guide

Ms Access - Overview Microsoft Access is a Database Management System (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and softwaredevelopment tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, included in the professional and higher editions.

Microsoft Access is just one part of Microsoft’s overall data management product strategy.
It stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine.
Like relational databases, Microsoft Access also allows you to link related information easily. For example, customer and order data. However, Access 2013 also complements other database products because it has several powerful connectivity features.
It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.
As its name implies, Access can work directly with data from other sources, including many popular PC database programs, with many SQL (Structured Query Language) databases on the desktop, on servers, on minicomputers, or on mainframes, and with data stored on Internet or intranet web servers.
Access can also understand and use a wide variety of other data formats, including many other database file structures.
You can export data to and import data from word processing files, spreadsheets, or database files directly.
Access can work with most popular databases that support the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard, including SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2. Software developers can use Microsoft Access to develop application software.

Microsoft Access stores information which is called a database. To use MS Access, you will need to follow these four steps:

Database Creation − Create your Microsoft Access database and specify what kind of data you will be storing.
Data Input − After your database is created, the data of every business day can be entered into the Access database.
Query − This is a fancy term to basically describe the process of retrieving information from the database.
Report (optional) − Information from the database is organized in a nice presentation that can be printed in an Access Report.

Architecture

Access calls anything that can have a name an object. Within an Access desktop database, the main objects are tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, data macros, and modules.
If you have worked with other database systems on desktop computers, you might have seen the term database used to refer to only those files in which you store data.
But, in Access, a desktop database (.accdb) also includes all the major objects related to the stored data, including objects you define to automate the use of your data.

Ms Access - RDBMS Microsoft Access has the look and feel of other Microsoft Office products as far as its layout and navigational aspects are concerned, but MS Access is a database and, more specifically, a relational database.

Before MS Access 2007, the file extension was *.mdb, but in MS Access 2007 the extension has been changed to *.accdb extension.
Early versions of Access cannot read accdb extensions but MS Access 2007 and later versions can read and change earlier versions of Access.
An Access desktop database (.accdb or .mdb) is a fully functional RDBMS.
It provides all the data definition, data manipulation, and data control features that you need to manage large volumes of data.
You can use an Access desktop database (.accdb or .mdb) either as a standalone RDBMS on a single workstation or in a shared client/server mode across a network.
A desktop database can also act as the data source for data displayed on webpages on your company intranet.
When you build an application with an Access desktop database, Access is the RDBMS.

Data Definition
Let us now understand what Data Definition is:
In document or a spreadsheet, you generally have complete freedom to define the contents of the document or each cell in the spreadsheet.
In a document, you can include paragraphs of text, a table, a chart, or multiple columns of data displayed with multiple fonts.
In spreadsheet, you can have text data at the top to define a column header for printing or display, and you might have various numeric formats within the same column, depending on the function of the row.
An RDBMS allows you to define the kind of data you have and how the data should be stored.
You can also usually define rules that the RDBMS can use to ensure the integrity of your data.
For example, a validation rule might ensure that the user can’t accidentally store alphabetic characters in a field that should contain a number.