Design issues with an access database

[levyuk]

Hi

I am building a cocktail website. The website will have an access backend. I have no problems getting/putting information to databases. My main problem is the design of the database.

I need some advice on how I should design the database i.e. what fields.

The database should contain the cocktail name, directions, and also the ingrediants. There will be a maximum of 5 ingredients so I will need 5 ingredient fields. this is all fine. But the ingredients must also have quantities, should i put the quantities in the same field as the ingredient or in a seperate field?

Thanks
Jon

 

[cpopham]

Jon,


Designing a good database is not as easy as it sounds. Especially when you start working with a relational database model. You have different types of relationships to consider, primary keys, foreign keys, possibly concatenated keys and much more. I have been designing a "simple" address label database for about a month now. You said that you are using Access? You may want to check out utteraccess.com they are dedicated to Access. This signt is more geared toward programming

Chester

 

[Paszt]

I would suggest putting the quantities as a seperate field, that way if you wanted to change the serving size you could simply multiply (or divide) the quantities.
I would also suggest having a seperate table with the ingredients and creating a relationship between the two tables.

Of course the design of any database depends on your expected use.

Microsoft has a recepies database template for download at their template site. Here's the link.