Types of databases in access The following sections are brief descriptions of the parts of a typical

Type of data Access database.

Use Boards
Size Forms
Short text (previously known as "Text") Reports
Alphanumeric data (names, titles, etc.) Consultations
Up to 255 characters. Macros
Long text (previously known as "Memo") Modules
Large amounts of alphanumeric data: sentences and paragraphs. See Boards
Memo data type is now called "Long Text" for more information on the
details of long texts.
A database table is similar in appearance to a spreadsheet in
Up to approximately 1 gigabyte (GB), but controls for displaying long
that data is stored in rows and columns. Therefore, it is quite easy to
text are limited to the first 64,000 characters.
import a spreadsheet into a database table. The main difference
Number
between storing data in a spreadsheet and storing it in a database is
Numerical data.
the way the data is organized.
1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bytes.
To take full advantage of the flexibility of a database, data must be
big number
organized in tables so that redundancies do not occur. For example, if
Numerical data.
you want to store information about employees, each employee must
8 bytes.
be specified only once in the table that is configured for employee
For more information, see Using the large number data type .
data. Data about products will be stored in its own table and data
Date and Time
about branches will be stored in another table. This process is called
Dates and times.
normalization .
8 bytes.
Each row in a table is called a record. Information is stored in records.
Currency
Each record is made up of one or more fields. The fields are equivalent
Monetary data, stored to 4 decimal places of precision.
to the columns of the table. For example, you may have a table called
8 bytes.
"Employees" where each record (row) contains information about a
Autonumbering
different employee and each field (column) contains other information
Unique value generated by Access for each new record.
such as first name, last name, address, etc. Fields must be designated
4 bytes (16 bytes for the ID. replication).
as a certain data type, whether text, date or time, number, or some
But
other type.
boolean data (true/false); Access stores the numeric value zero (0) for
Another way to describe the records and fields is to imagine an old
False and -1 for True.
library card catalog. Each card in the binder corresponds to a record in
1 byte.
the database. Each data on an individual card (author, title, etc.) is
OLE object
equivalent to a field in the database.
Images, graphics, or other ActiveX objects from another Windows-
For more information about tables, see the Table Introduction article.
based application.
Forms
Up to about 2 GB.
Hyperlink
A link address to a document or file on the Internet, on an intranet, on Forms allow you to create a user interface in which you can
a local area network (LAN), or on the local computer enter and modify data. Forms often contain command buttons and
Up to 8192 (each part of a Hyperlink data type can contain a maximum other controls that perform different tasks. You can create a database
of 2048 characters). without using forms by simply modifying the data in the table data
Attached data sheets. However, most database users prefer to use forms to view,
You can attach files such as images, documents, spreadsheets, or write, and modify data in tables.
graphs; Each Attachment field can contain an unlimited number of You can program command buttons to determine what data appears
attachments per record, up to the storage limit of the size of a on the form, open other forms or reports, or perform other tasks. For
database file. Please note that the Attachment data type is not available example, you may have a form called "Customer Form" in which you
in MDB file formats. work with customer data. The customer form can have a button that
Up to about 2 GB. opens an order form where you can enter a new order for the
Calculated customer.
You can create an expression that uses data from one or more fields. Forms also allow you to control how other users interact with data in
You can designate different result data types than the expression. the database. For example, you can create a form that displays only
Please note that the Calculated data type is not available in MDB file certain fields and allows only certain operations to be performed. This
formats. helps protect the data and ensure that the data is entered correctly.
It depends on the data type of the Result Type property. The short text For more information about forms, see the Getting started with forms
data type result can be up to 243 characters. Long text, number, article.
Yes/No, and datetime must match their respective data types. Reports
Search Assistant
The Search Wizard entry in the data type column in Design view is not
Reports are used to format, summarize, and present data.
actually a data type. By choosing this entry, launch the Wizard to help
Typically, a report answers a specific question such as: "How much
you define a simple or complex search field. A simple lookup field uses
money did we receive from each client this year?" or "In which cities do
the contents of another table or a list of values to validate the contents
our clients reside?" Each report can be formatted to present the
of a single value per row. A complex lookup field allows multiple values
information in the most readable way possible.
of the same data type to be stored in each row.
You can run one report at a time and always reflect the current data in
It depends on the data type of the search field.
the database. Reports are typically formatted for printing, but they can
Features of access databases also be viewed on screen, exported to another program, or sent as an
email attachment.
For more information about reports, see the Getting Started with
Reports article.
Consultations

Queries can perform various functions in a database. The most

common function is to retrieve specific data from tables. The data you
want to see is usually spread across multiple tables, and queries allow
you to view it in a single data sheet. Additionally, because you often
don't want to see all the records at once, queries allow you to add
criteria to "filter" the data and get only the records you want.
Certain queries are "updatable," that is, you can modify the data in the
underlying tables using the query's data sheet. If you are working on an
updateable query, remember that the changes are actually made to the
tables, not just the query datasheet.
There are two basic varieties of queries: selection queries and action
queries. A select query simply retrieves the data and makes it available
for use. You can view the query results on the screen, print them, or
copy them to the clipboard. Or, you can use the query result as a
record source for a form or report.
An action query, as the name implies, performs a task on the data.
Action queries can be used to create new tables, add data to existing
tables, or update or delete data.
For more information about queries, see the Getting started with
queries article. BASIC : was developed at Dartmouth University in 1964
under the direction of J.Kemeny and T Kurtz, it was originally
Macros
developed as a teaching tool. The language and its variants
became widely available on microcomputers .
Macros in Access can be considered a simplified programming
language that you can use to add functions to the database. For
example, you can attach a macro to a command button on a form so
that the macro runs every time that button is clicked. Macros contain
actions that perform tasks, such as opening a report, running a query,
or closing the database. Most of the database operations that you
perform manually can be automated by using macros, making them
huge time-saving devices.
For more information about macros, see the article Getting started with
macros .
Modules

Modules, like macros, are objects that you can use to add
functionality to the database. While macros are created in Access by C : created in 1972, it is a language aimed at the
choosing from a list of macro actions, modules are written in the Visual implementation of Operating Systems , specifically Unix . C is
Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language. A module is a prized for the efficiency of the code it produces and is the
collection of statements, instructions, and procedures that are stored most popular programming language for creating systems
together as a unit. A module can be a class module or a standard software.
module. Class modules are attached to forms or reports and typically
contain procedures that are specific to the form or report to which they
are attached. Standard modules contain general procedures that are
not associated with any other objects. Standard modules appear under
Modules in the navigation pane while class modules do not.

Programming languages to create databases

A database is a collection of information organized so that a
computer program can quickly select the pieces of data it
needs. A database is an electronic file system. Traditional
databases are organized by fields, records, and files. A field is
a single piece of information; a record is a complete system of
fields; and a file is a collection of records.

TYPES OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES C++: is a programming language designed in the mid-1980s by

Bjarne Stroustrup . The intention of its creation was to extend the
ADA : It is a multipurpose, object-oriented and concurrent successful C programming language with mechanisms that allow
language. Ada is mainly used in environments where high object manipulation. In that sense, from the point of view of
security and reliability is needed such as defense, aeronautics , object-oriented languages , C++ is a hybrid language.
air traffic management and the aerospace industry among others.
 programming database applications. It is compatible with a
large number of databases including all SQL , ADO , and XML
formats, and can also generate output to HTML , XML , text
files, and PDF , among others.

COBOL – A programming language was designed expressly

for administrative data processing. It is a high-level language
and as such is generally machine independent.

DELPHI - is a powerful program development tool that allows

the creation of applications for Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and
Windows NT. It has a very fast compiler, and powerful tools
for the visual creation of applications, complete tools for the
creation and management of databases, multimedia
applications, DDE linking, creation of DLLs, VBX, etc.
C# – Object-oriented programming language developed and
standardized by Microsoft as part of its .NET platform. It is an
independent programming language designed to generate
programs on said platform.

EIFFEL: was designed in 1985 by Bertrand Meyer. It is an

object-oriented programming language focused on building robust
software. It allows design by contract from the ground up, with
preconditions , postconditions , loop invariants and variants , class
invariants and assertions. Implements automatic memory
management, usually using garbage collection algorithms.

CLARION: is a 4GL Language in addition to being a

Softvelocity integrated development environment , aimed at
 LISP: It is the language for applications such as artificial
intelligence.

FORTRAN: procedure-oriented computer language, which is

based on the structure of the language originally used to
describe the problem, as well as the procedure used to solve
it. Designed especially for the manipulation of scientific
formulas and the application of numerical methods to solve
problems.

JAVA: object-oriented developed by Sun Microsystems, the

OBJECTIVE-C: is an object-oriented programming language created
Java language was designed to be small, simple and portable
as a superset of C but implementing an object model similar
across platforms and operating systems, both at the source
to that of Smalltalk .
and binary code levels, they can run on any computer that
has a virtual machine installed of Java.

LEXICO : is a programming language that was born with the

aim of being a good tool for learning a programming
language. Lexico, which is a didactic language in Spanish,
aims to facilitate the learning and teaching of object-oriented OBJECTIVE CAML: called Ocaml or O'Caml, it is an advanced
programming. programming language of the ML language family, developed
and distributed by INRIA in France .
OZ: is the user interface of the Strasheel constraint music
composition system. Oz has a high-quality implementation,
the Mozart Programming System, which was released under
an Open Source license by the Mozart Consortium. Mozart has
been ported to different platforms such as Unix , FreeBSD ,
Linux , Microsoft Windows , and Mac OS X.

PHP : is an interpreted programming language , originally designed

for creating dynamic web pages . It is primarily used for server -
side scripting but can currently be used from a command line
interface or in creating other types of programs including GUI
applications using the Qt or GTK+ libraries.

PASCAL - is a general-purpose high-level programming

language; that is, it can be used to write programs for
scientific and commercial purposes.

PERL: It is based on a style of blocks like those of C or AWK,

and was widely adopted for its prowess in text processing and
having none of the limitations of other scripting languages.

PROLOG: was invented around 1970 by Alain Colmerauer and

his colleagues at Marcella University. In the late 1970s,
versions of Prolog for microcomputers began to appear, the
micro-prolog, and many prolog books were dedicated to it.
There was not much interest in the prolog until Japanese
scientists launched their famous fifth generation project with
the aim of designing new computers and software.
PYTHON: it is a programming language with very clean syntax that
favors readable code. It is an interpreted language , uses dynamic
VISUAL BASIC.NET : is an object-oriented programming language
typing , is strongly typed and cross-platform .
that can be considered an evolution of Visual Basic
implemented on the .NET framework .

TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

Multiprogramming Operating Systems (or multitasking

Operating Systems).
Single-task Operating System.
Single-user Operating System.
Multiuser Operating System.
Batch Operating Systems.
Real-time operating systems.
Time-sharing operating systems.
Distributed Operating Systems.
RUBY: is an interpreted , reflective , and object-oriented programming Network Operating Systems.
language . It combines a syntax inspired by Python and Perl with Parallel Operating Systems.
object-oriented programming features similar to Smalltalk , and DOS: The famous DOS, which means Disk Operating System,
its official implementation is distributed under a free software is better known by the names PC-DOS and MS-DOS. MS-DOS.
license .

SMALLTALK: is a language that allows computing tasks to be

performed through interaction with an environment of virtual
objects. Metaphorically, a Smalltalk can be considered to be a Windows 3.1 - an operating system with a user-friendly
virtual world where objects live that communicate by sending graphical interface, and as a result you got Windows. This
messages. system displays icons on the screen that represent different
files or programs, which can be accessed by double-clicking
them with the mouse pointer.
Windows 95: In 1995, Microsoft introduced a new and improved
version of Windows 3.1. The improvements of this OS include
multitasking support and 32-bit architecture, thus allowing Mac OS: Macintosh computers would not be as popular as they
better applications to run to improve work efficiency. are if they did not have the Mac OS as the factory operating
system. This operating system is so user-friendly that anyone
can learn to use it in no time. On the other hand, it is very
good at organizing files and using them effectively. This was
created by Apple Computer, Inc.

Windows NT: This version of Windows specializes in networks

and servers. With this OS you can interact effectively between
two or more computers.

UNIX : The UNIX operating system was created by AT&T's Bell

Laboratories in 1969 and is now used as one of the
foundations for the information superhighway. Unix is a multi-
user and multi-tasking OS, which runs on different
computers, from supercomputers, Mainframes,
Minicomputers, personal computers and workstations. This
means that many users may be using the same computer
through terminals or using many of them.

OS/2: This OS was made by IBM. It has 32-bit support and its
interface is very good. The problem with this operating
system is that it has not been given the support it deserves in
terms of applications. That is, not many applications have
been created that take advantage of the features of the OS,
since the majority of the software market has been
monopolized by Windows.