Access Chapter 10

Demonstrable Skill	Learning Activities & Informal Assessments	Formal Assessments (excluding Exams)
Identify the different clauses of a SQL SELECT query and their purpose.	Access: SQL Participation Project
Use SQL SELECT queries to view data.	Access: Queries I Participation Project Access: Queries II Participation Project Access: Queries III Participation Project Access: SQL Participation Project MyLab Lesson E	Homework #3 Homework #5 MyLab Lesson E

Structured Query Language (SQL)

Structured Query Language (SQL) is the industry-standard language for defining, manipulating, and retrieving data in a database [1]. SQL was developed at IBM in the early 1970s. Since then, Microsoft developed its own version of SQL for Access.  All Access queries use an SQL statement to extract data from tables.

SELECT statements

A SQL SELECT statement is used to retrieve data from tables in a database [1]. A SQL keyword defines the purpose and the structure of an SQL statement. The words show in UPPERCASE are the SQL keywords.

There are four basic keywords found in a typical SQL SELECT statement: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, and ORDER BY.

• The SELECT keyword instructs Access to return the specific fields from one or more tables or queries.
• The FROM keyword specifies the table or tables that will be searched.
• The WHERE keyword specifies the criteria that records must match to be included in the results.
• The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the records by a certain field in either ascending or descending order.

Entering SQL queries

Don't try to type a SQL statement out for the CS101 Homeworks.  Copying-and-pasting the queries reduces the chance of error [2].

SQL errors

If you get an error on a SQL query, there are a few things you should check [2]:

• Parameter error: Check to make sure you included the table it is referencing.
• Parameter error: Check to make sure the name of the field the query is asking for is spelled correctly both in the query and in the table.
• Other errors: Make sure that when you copied-and-pasted the SQL, Access did not split a line or cut a word in half or off.

1. A. Poatsy, K. Mulberry, C. Krebs, L. Hogan, A. Rutledge, and E. Cameron, Exploring Microsoft Office 2013, 1st ed., vol. 2. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2013.
2. R. G. Phipps and B. M. Powell, “Access Chapter 10,” Computer Science 101, May 18, 2016. Available: http://cs101.wvu.edu/materials/units/access/access-chapter-10/.