Primary Key

I am not sure what I'm doing. I am new to access. Have check out several
books from the library and have been all over the net looking for answers.
Simply put I am in way over my head. I have posted here twice before, and it
was somewhat fruitful, but I am still overwhelmed.

I am a dispatcher in a homeless shelter, and from the below it will become
obvious what I am trying to do.

I have a database that I imported from an excel file. The fields, to name a
few, are street names, predir (N (north), S (south), etc), Suffix (Dr., Ln.,
St., Cir., etc), postdir, hundred block, zip code, city, map, map grid,
truck, and others.

When I receive a call and someone wants to donate a TV. I would like to
find a map grid to were they live, which is based on the street name, but
also the city (every city has a Main St), and zip code (suppose it is a very
long street within the same city). So, as you might imagine, for a given
street, there are multiple listings, or records, differing by hundred block,
or city, or zip code, but ultimately each record, in its entirety, is unique.
As I ask the person on the phone these questions, I am hoping that access
would ultimately find the correct map grid, and from there the truck and map
are easily determined.

First, when I imported the data, I choose the ID to be the primary key for
the "main" table and all the “sub tables”. I need to ask if this is the
right choice? If not, I hope I know how to change this.

Second, one of these sub tables is street name (actually all of the records
of the main table are a sub table, and I don't know if this is necessary).
All of the streets called "Main" are grouped together with a “+” sign to the
left. When I click on the “+”, another table opens and all the rest of the
data is there for all the Main, be it Main St, Main Cir, in City A or City B,
zip codes, etc. This right here is pretty kewl, but I’m hoping for way more.
The next question is, is this “+” significant, or is it actually focusing me
on the wrong thing?

The final goal of this is to have a form that the dispatchers would use,
entering in the “info” (I really do not want to call it data at this point,
the data was, is, the original excel file) from the donor as they are on the
phone, and we would instantly know which truck, how many pickups that truck
has scheduled for a given day, print all this information for the drivers,
and then store this into an entirely different data base.

This brings me to the final question. I was trying to write a search form,
to search first let’s say, first for the street name, once this is done then
by say zip code (for that street name), then if necessary by city, and the
rest of the information would be determined at that point. On this I am
totally lost. I have tried several things, I think I have gotten close, but
need to return to this forum for help!

There ya have it!

"awsmitty" wrote in message

> I am not sure what I'm doing. I am new to access. Have check out several
> books from the library and have been all over the net looking for answers.
> Simply put I am in way over my head. I have posted here twice before, and
> it
> was somewhat fruitful, but I am still overwhelmed.
>
> I am a dispatcher in a homeless shelter, and from the below it will become
> obvious what I am trying to do.
>
> I have a database that I imported from an excel file. The fields, to name
> a
> few, are street names, predir (N (north), S (south), etc), Suffix (Dr.,
> Ln.,
> St., Cir., etc), postdir, hundred block, zip code, city, map, map grid,
> truck, and others.
>
> When I receive a call and someone wants to donate a TV. I would like to
> find a map grid to were they live, which is based on the street name, but
> also the city (every city has a Main St), and zip code (suppose it is a
> very
> long street within the same city). So, as you might imagine, for a given
> street, there are multiple listings, or records, differing by hundred
> block,
> or city, or zip code, but ultimately each record, in its entirety, is
> unique.
> As I ask the person on the phone these questions, I am hoping that access
> would ultimately find the correct map grid, and from there the truck and
> map
> are easily determined.
>
> First, when I imported the data, I choose the ID to be the primary key for
> the "main" table and all the “sub tables”. I need to ask if this is the
> right choice? If not, I hope I know how to change this.
>
> Second, one of these sub tables is street name (actually all of the
> records
> of the main table are a sub table, and I don't know if this is necessary).
> All of the streets called "Main" are grouped together with a “+” sign to
> the
> left. When I click on the “+”, another table opens and all the rest of
> the
> data is there for all the Main, be it Main St, Main Cir, in City A or City
> B,
> zip codes, etc. This right here is pretty kewl, but I’m hoping for way
> more.
> The next question is, is this “+” significant, or is it actually focusing
> me
> on the wrong thing?
>
> The final goal of this is to have a form that the dispatchers would use,
> entering in the “info” (I really do not want to call it data at this
> point,
> the data was, is, the original excel file) from the donor as they are on
> the
> phone, and we would instantly know which truck, how many pickups that
> truck
> has scheduled for a given day, print all this information for the drivers,
> and then store this into an entirely different data base.
>
> This brings me to the final question. I was trying to write a search
> form,
> to search first let’s say, first for the street name, once this is done
> then
> by say zip code (for that street name), then if necessary by city, and the
> rest of the information would be determined at that point. On this I am
> totally lost. I have tried several things, I think I have gotten close,
> but
> need to return to this forum for help!
>
> There ya have it!
>
> --
> awsmitty

Are you trying to record and store location information on donated goods, or
are you trying to direct a truck to a potential donation?

If the latter, I'd suggest that you use any one of several free online
solutions (Google maps and Mapquest come to mind immediately).