Creating an Access Database
Created by Patricia Janann Nicholson

Access is a great program to use when you want to analyze data and answer specific questions. First, you must set up the database.

Directions:

Open Access (Go to start, choose programs, and then Microsoft Access). 

When Access opens click File > New:

Then at the New File dialog box, click Blank database.

Another dialog box will open. On the file name line, type Hurricanedb (replacing db1). This is a very critical step. This is where you are actually saving the file to your folder!!!

In the Save in line, make sure you navigate to your desktop folder and click on your name folder and save it there. This is very crucial because this is when you save your database, not after you enter data.Click Create to enter Access. You will then be given several options to choose from.

Choose Create table in Design View.

Type the following information in the Table under its appropriate column.  To set your field size, click on data type and box will appear at the bottom of your field box.  The field size is automatically set at 50.  You can leave the field size at 50, or adjust the field size accordingly.

Save the database (File > Save) and when prompted to assign a primary key, choose yes because this will help you keep track of your records. Name the table Storms.

Close your table. Your primary key will be number of the record you are entering. It is automatically named as your first field entry name. After saving it, close the table.

Open the table to begin entering hurricane data. Go to the following website:

http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/hurrarchive.asp

You will see the following information:

You will start with the year 1928. Click on the link 1928. This will open the hurricane data page that contains all the information on hurricanes that made landfall that year. After you click on 1928, you should see the following. I have highlighted the two hurricanes we are interested in because they actually became a category storm on landfall. You will not enter the other tropical storm data. We are only interested in the category hurricanes. For 1928 you will enter data for two storms, Hurricane 1 and Lake Okeechobee Hurricane.

Fill in the data as shown below:

Continue filling in the data for the years to present.

Creating Queries:

Criteria Guidelines:

Is Null-diplays data that is left blank. Example, if you did not enter data in one of the fields, you are saying that there was no data.

The sign > means greater than.

The sign < means less than.

The sign = means equal to.

Not operator-Not T* will find all data in that field whose names doesn't begin with T, or Not 2 will find data whose ID isn't 2.

Or operator-displays data in either of the two fields. "London" or "Hedge End."

#2/2/95#-displays data only on that day.

In operator-displays data in that particular circumstance. In("Canada", "UK")

Like operator-Like "S*"recognizes data whose name starts with the letter S. The * is a called a wild card in a query.

To create a query, complete the following steps:

Open your Hurricane table.
Drop down the new object menu and choose query.

Choose design view, then click OK.

Choose the field you wish to find information about (you can double click the fields and it will automatically fill in the field for you).After selecting the field, you will need to determine the criteria.

Query 1 - How many category hurricanes where there in 1995? Name them. First you want the name of the storm as one field and the year field with 1995 as the criteria as shown below:

Click the run query button to get the results:

You should get the following data back after the run:

Save the query (File > Save As) and name it Query1:

Continue with the rest of the querys, naming them the same as above but the number will be3 different.

Query 2 - How many storms killed more than 1000 people. What were the names of the storms and what year did they occur?

Query 3 - How many storms had the name Hurricane 1 and what years did they occur?

Query 4 - What storms caused 3000 or more deaths and what years did they happen?

Query 5 - Name the category 5 hurricanes and the cost each of them caused.

Query 6 - What were the name of the hurricanes that were category 2 during the year 1933?

Query 7 - Name the hurricanes that caused no deaths?

Query 8 - What hurricanes had winds over 100 mph?

Query 9 - What hurricanes were less than a category 3 and caused less than 100 deaths?

Query 10 - What hurricanes occured in 2005 causing more than 10 million dollars in damge?