[AccessD] Mucking around

Thanks John,
Normalised data I understand.
What I don't understand is how we get from that to Data Marts.  

Q1: What do I  do with my normalised tables.  If the answer is to leave the
data in the normalised table and then re-post it to a flat table, then why
could that not have been done at data entry.
Q2: If the answer to Q1 is go straight to flat tables, then what do I do
AFTER that.

When it then comes to pulling the data out into reports are we talking about
using software other than Access?

The terminology is throwing me a bit too (well, to be honest, it is throwing
me a lot).
With the help of you guys, I will undertand it eventually.

What is conceptually throwing me at the moment though is this:  If the
reason people use datamarts (Star/Snow) to quickly create reports which
dice/slice down through the data, then are we or are we not just moving the
"time Taken" from the report stage to the data input stage (which would make
sense to me).  But if I am completely wrong here, then I really am "all at
sea!"

Thanks
Max
 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Bartow
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 6:11 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Mucking around

Max,
I think of it this way (this is not a technical explanation):
-Normalized data (in a normalized data structure) is the basis for how one
enters, stores and maintains data.
-Queries, reports, labels, graphs, web data, data streams, transactional
systems, data warehouse/marts, etc. are all products of efficiently entered
and stored data. They are _derived_ from the normalized data.

In theory, the more efficiently stored (normalized) the more precise. Some
of the arguments you will see here are based on efficiency of
accessing/maintaining/editing the data more so than efficient storage of the
data. There will be compromises made due to the complexity of dealing with
normalized data to scenarios that do not allow for full normalization of
data and/or those who do not fully understand the ideology (yes, I
purposefully stated it that way) of normalization (this means almost all
programmers who are not first DBAs ;o)

This doesn't infer that anyone is doing anything wrong, just that some
things aren't done according to the rules of normalization.

As for the technical explanations I will not venture into that realm as we
have people much more adept here than I.

HTH
John B.

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
max.wanadoo at gmail.com
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 11:02 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Mucking around


Ha, Chalotte, thought so, "a mess" is usually where I end up anyway.

So, if I wanted to do this in MS Access, what are the major steps, or is
this something that should not be considered in Access?

I guess I don't really comprehend what is meant by "from the Transaction
System", or what is a "Transactional System", or what is a "Mart" or what is
meant by "loads data from" - why cannot the data entry just post straight to
the "Mart".

Big leaning curve here.

Ta
Max


--
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com